He picked me up in his infamous white Lexus with the customized Braves license plate. As he complained about the snag on the ceiling of his interior, a blemish that was hardly visible to the naked eye, the latest Lil Dicky and Chris Brown collab “Freaky Friday” played in the background.
Back at his fraternity house, Theta Chi, one of his brothers across the hall was vacuuming his room in nothing but boxers and flip-flops. While distracted by the man across the hall’s lack of clothing and immaculate fraternity bedroom, he asked me to take off my shoes before entering his room.
His room was a very different living space than the one I just marveled at, one with a general mess of dirty laundry, papers and the like. One of my favorite books, Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture,” lay dejected in the corner. As he slipped into Ugg slippers, I noticed his closet had his shirts organized by color. This was the only aspect of his room that mirrored his high maintenance and anal personality.
Dave asked Alexa to turn on his lights.
Dave Jensen is a senior at Bradley University majoring in business management & leadership with a concentration in human resources and a minor in social media marketing. He may not fit the bill for a stereotypical frat boy, but how does one qualify as “typical” anything when other positions on campus include but are not limited to Student Body President, Secretary of the Interfraternity Council, Student Admissions Representative, ACBU Homecoming Coordinator, Director of Recruitment for a business fraternity, Logistics Coordinator for Late Night BU and Peer Educator for H.E.A.T. You wouldn’t be able to read through his email signature in one breath.
Jensen said he came into Bradley with the idea that he wanted to be a person that a lot of people knew, but he never imagined it at this level. In high school, he was involved in nine band activities, a self-proclaimed nerd that believed if he kept busy and wasn’t home a lot that the college transition would be easier.
“When I came here on a Visit Day I talked to one of the tables at the Activities Fair for 45 minutes,” Jensen said. “We were just talking about what I could accomplish here and what I could get involved in and she just kept hyping me up like ‘This is your place, you could really do well here’ and I really owe her a lot of credit.”
In actuality, those who know him best believe he should attribute a lot of his success to his own drive. Jaclyn Clark, who first met Jensen when they were hired as Student Aides at the end of their freshmen year, said how much he cares for others is what makes him so beloved on campus.
“I truly believe Dave’s passion is people. He cares about people more than anybody I know,” Clark said, “I think that’s the reason he provides all that he does, because the more people he can connect with, the more positive impact he will have on their lives.”
An unlikely duo, she fondly recalled all the times he went out of his way to remember mundane details about her life, or how he always jots down her test dates in his calendar so he doesn’t forget to wish her luck.
“[When I first met Dave] I remember we were complete opposites,” Clark said. “I was very reserved and kept pretty much to myself and he was extremely outgoing and instantly tried to make a connection with everybody. I would have never guessed we could click so well and become best friends”
Despite this seemingly perfect track record, Jensen said his weaknesses include not being able to say ‘no,’ his inability to whistle, not being able to cook even prepackaged pasta and his tendency to overthink things. He also said he worries about others first impression of him.
“A lot of people think that I’m gay,” Jensen said. “It’s something I’ve struggled with since seventh grade and I always wonder if that’s why I’m not in a relationship, but I’m not going to change myself for someone. I can’t change the way my voice sounds or the way that I act because at the end of the day, even though I often feel alone, I know there’s a lot of people that love me.”
His closeness to several prominent Bradley administrators provides more insight on how he is perceived by the masses.
“I never thought about him as the face of campus, but I agree he is super involved with organizations and has worked intentionally to connect with faculty and staff,” Executive Director of Student Involvement Tom Coy said. “I think he is ‘friends’ with a lot of students on a very surface level. I think he also works very hard to gain the approval of others.”
Nathan Thomas, Vice President for Student Affairs, mirrored many of Coy’s sentiments.
“Dave’s biggest strength is that he cares deeply about other people and Bradley. He wants to make people happy and values the interactions he has with others,” Thomas said. “Probably his biggest weakness is that he hasn’t learned how to say no, although, he has worked on it. At times, this has probably caused him to stretch himself too thin.
Although Jensen consistently weaved between being overly confident and self-aware to insecure in my interactions with him, he is adamant about one thing: being unapologetically himself with no façade.
“I wouldn’t say I put up a front, but it’s really hard when the bad days roll around,” Jensen said. “It’s really difficult because a lot of people rely on my positive energy and upbeat and happy external me. I am very thankful for everything I’ve accomplished here and all the friends I have and until the day I will be thankful for my life. But the easiest way to say it is ‘I love my life, but I’m very far from loving myself.’”
During his junior year of high school, Jensen’s mom had an affair. It continued on throughout his father’s battle with cancer, until his unfortunate parting on May 27, 2015 and to this day. His name is also Dave, but he has not yet met him.
“I’m very close with my sister. We’re really all each other has at this point,” Jensen said. “I want nothing but happiness for my mom, everyone does, it’s just rough when we’ll never really see eye-to-eye on a lot of the topics surrounding how things went down. I wouldn’t say I have strong family ties, but I love my sister to the end of this earth and I’m grateful for most of my life with my mom.”
With eyes welling up, he pointed to the picture he plans on plastering to his graduation cap this May, with the caption “here in spirit, forever in my heart.” He explained how graduations are especially difficult for his family, because his father first collapsed during his high school graduation, and this past year at his sister Amy’s graduation, it was on the anniversary of his death.
When I spoke with Amy, she said she’s aware of her brother’s involvement on campus and that many people rely on him, but she still worries.
“He fills his time because he doesn’t want to think about things that make him sad,” Amy Jensen, currently a freshman at Grand Valley State, said. “I think that being involved with so many other things on campus is his way of trying to boost self esteem, because he knows that he gets so much recognition from everyone for doing what he does.”
Dave is cognizant of this rationale, but still strives to live as selflessly as possible and do most of his life for others.
“Some people say that amidst everything that I do that I have a lot of selfish intentions,” Jensen said. “I think at one point in our lives we’re all selfish when it comes to certain things. I mean I’m not going to pick out clothes at the store because I think other people will like them, I’m going to pick out clothes because I think I’ll look good in them.”
After graduation, Jensen plans to return home to Warrenville, Illinois and work at Enterprise, where he had a 10-week internship this past summer. He also plans to move to California once all of his student loans are paid off, where his dream is to be a stay at home dad.
“The one thing that makes me go to bed at night is that I drill into my head that I’ve made an impact at this school, because amidst all the negative thoughts and not loving myself and all that beats me down, no matter whether I believe that it’s true, I have to tell myself that I’ve made an impact here because that’s what keeps me going.”