Duluth native is honored with the College's first Young Alumni Achievement Award

Release Date: 10/21/09
Jessica Durbin of Duluth has received St. Scholastica's first Young Alumni Achievement Award. The award was presented Oct. 5 during the College's Homecoming weekend.

The award recognizes alumni, 40 years old and younger, who have succeeded in their professions and are committed to upholding the values and mission of St. Scholastica. Alumni are nominated by St. Scholastica faculty or staff.

"Jessica meets all of these criteria - and then some," said Lisa Roseth, executive director for Alumni Relations. "She is an extremely capable, ambitious professional. She is also a very good friend to the College."

Durbin graduated in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in history. She practices law at the firm of Johnson, Killen and Seiler in Duluth.

She received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Minnesota law school. As a first-year law student she received the prestigious Justice Harry Blackman Scholarship. In 2005, 2006 and 2008 she was named one of Minnesota's "Rising Stars" by the Minnesota Law and Politics magazine.

She served on the St. Scholastica Alumni Board of Directors from 2002 through 2008. During her tenure, she worked to promote the College, increase the endowment for the Alumni Scholarship, and planned and hosted various gatherings throughout Duluth and the Twin Cities.

"Her leadership on the Alumni Board was outstanding," wrote her nominator for the award. "And she did this while maintaining her stature in her professional and civic duties in Duluth."

Durbin serves on St. Scholastica's Pre-Law Advisory Board, the Eleventh District Bar Association Ethics Committee, and the City of Duluth Commission on Disabilities. She was a charter member of the Northeastern Minnesota Chapter of Minnesota Women Lawyers and remains active in the organization. She was president of the Duluth New Lawyers organization and a member of the Minnesota State Bar Association's Convention Planning Committee.

The College of St. Scholastica is regularly recognized as one of the finest colleges in the Midwest. The 2010 "America's Best Colleges" survey by U.S. News & World Report magazine ranks St. Scholastica in the top tier of Midwestern universities. The Princeton Review recommends it as one of the "Best in the Midwest," and The Washington Post has rated it one of the nation's 100 "hidden gems" among U.S. colleges and universities.