Jessica McLaughlin grew up in Peckville and attended Valley View School District where she participated in color guard and school musicals. She graduated second in her class in 2001. Upon graduation, Jessica attended The University of Scranton with a triple major in communication, English, and philosophy. She was a member of The University’s prestigious Special Jesuit Liberal Arts Program and, through this opportunity, she was able to spend her junior year studying abroad at Oxford University. In addition, she served as the managing editor of The University of Scranton’s newspaper The Aquinas her senior year.
After her 2005 graduation, Jessica worked for The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, for two years, writing articles for the community news section. She then chose to return to The University of Scranton to pursue a master’s degree in Secondary Education English. She was later hired by the Western Wayne School District in 2009. During her time at Western Wayne, she has taught a variety of high school grades before settling in to teach full time ELA in the middle school for the past eleven years. She has been the Western Wayne color guard instructor for thirteen seasons having grown the number of performers on the field and integrating rifle, saber, and dance into the performances.
In addition, she has been involved in Western Wayne musical theater since 2012 when she first started as choreographer. From 2015 to present, she has served as the show’s director and choreographer. She also worked to form the school’s official Drama Club in 2016. Both the musicals and club have grown over the past many seasons to include more cast, stage crew, and art students, and to provide opportunities for the club to engage with the community. Jessica is grateful for all of her experiences in teaching performance arts with some of her favorite field show songs over the years being Star Wars, Sail Away, Dream On, the Chicken Dance, and Dancing Queen. Some of her favorite Western Wayne musical highlights include: Seussical, Nice Work if You Can Get It, Little Shop of Horrors, Little Mermaid, Addams Family, and Mamma Mia!