Holy Family Junior Jayden Fobbs Finds Ways to Help; Plans for Career in Education

Holy Family University junior education major Jayden Fobbs has been a presence on the University’s Northeast Philadelphia campus since he arrived after graduating from Bensalem High School.  A resident student as a freshman, Fobbs upped his profile on campus after becoming a certified firefighter.

“My experience at Holy Family has been great,” Fobbs said. “I started out living on campus.  I loved my dorm.  I loved the campus and my teachers.  Then I moved to on-call firefighting, so I would work overnight from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., four days a week, at the Eddington Fire Company and then take classes from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.  I have even shared fire-prevention classes on campus and run seminars on smoke detectors and careless cooking.”

The classes have been dually beneficial, since Fobbs not only has a love for firefighting but also a calling for education.  He aspires to one day be a middle school English teacher.

“I had one seventh grade teacher who was really influential and helpful,” Fobbs said.  “She was always coming in early and leaving later.  She always had an open-door policy, so whenever you wanted or needed to talk to her, you could. I feel like middle school is a good age where I can make a difference, where I can steer kids in the right direction and provide a bridge between home and school.  I hope to one day be like that teacher was to me, to not only teach my students, but to help them find their way.”

To assist him in personal quest, Fobbs recently enlisted as a private first class in the U.S. Marine Corps and is taking a leave from his studies to attend training at Paris Island, S.C., before accepting a four-year military assignment and an additional four-year commitment as a reservist.  The Marine Corps will pay for his Holy Family degree completion.

“I had a lot of help from my mother, Crystal Robinson, a Holy Family graduate (M ’17), and my grandmother, Karen Collins, growing up,” Fobbs said. “My brother, Malique Collins, and I had a lot of structure and were supported in our decisions, and when he decided to join the Marines, I was invested at a really young age. I actually started following the Marines’ training.  I would find it on YouTube and do it at home.  Firefighters also are very structured and are also paramilitary, so that discipline that I learned at the fire hall will carry me into the Marines where I hope to be a part of the military police.”

Fobbs recognizes that he has gotten a lot done at a young age, including completing certification as a private pilot, and he is convinced that all of the work that he has put in will set him up for success on his life’s path through education, a career that will allow him to be of service to others.

“There are a lot of people, especially in my generation, who give up early,” he said.  “They don’t have enough motivation and drive. They don’t have role models.  Everything I do is focused on being of help, whether is it to kids, peers, adults or fellow Marines.  I am here to show people, yes, you can do that.  I try to tell people you can do whatever you want. You can do things for yourself and at your own pace.  If you want it, go for it.”