Honoring the life and legacy of Jen Jansen, Performing Arts Administrative Assistant

On Sunday, Oct. 17 the Lawrence North community learned about the passing of Performing Arts Administrative Assistant Jennifer Jansen. Jansen was a valued and longstanding member of the community and the LN family.
“It is an extreme loss to the LN family, to the LN performing arts department, and to the students she served on a daily basis. She is going to be dearly missed by the entire Lawrence Township family,” Principal Brett Crousore said.
Jansen had strong ties to the LN community, dating back to when she attended as a student. Jansen was a part of the marching band when she was here. Crousore was Jansen’s social studies teacher back in 1997 and 1998, when Jansen was a junior. Crousore still remembers Jansen as a student.
“Great student, great person. Everything you would ever ask of somebody doing great things,” Crousore said.
In her role as Performing Arts Administrative assistant, Jansen was in charge of the fundraising and organization for LN’s band, choir, orchestra and dance organizations. Jansen had a close relationship with all of the performing arts directors and a dedication to her job and the performing arts community.
“She had all of that knowledge on what those groups needed, and that was so good combined with her skills in accounting. I think it was just a perfect match. She was a powerhouse in her role,” Performing Arts Department Chair Dave Morton said.
Morton worked with Jansen for several years. He said that in the time Jansen worked in the performing arts department, she showed commitment to her job in a way that was unparalleled and exceeded the expectations and duties of her position.
“She gave of herself for the performing arts and the fundraisers that we did. She would organize it. It just took hours. Hours of her going above and beyond what the job required. That’s going to be her legacy,” Morton said.
Along with being an alumni and faculty member, Jansen was invested in the success of LN in another way too. Her son, Caleb Jansen, attended and was part of the performing arts program. He graduated in 2020 and now attends Butler University. According to Morton, Jansen having a son in the department allowed for her to better serve the performing arts community because she saw firsthand what they needed.
“She was a very active and strong band booster parent, and she had her son involved in, I think, absolutely every organization that we offer here,” Morton said.
On Thursday, Oct. 28, the performing arts department here at LN held a fundraiser to fundraise for Caleb Jansen’s scholarship fund.
“We did a halloween party. We had an escape room and we had a dance and we had a costume contest. Students donated money and they could pay to enter some of the different contests. We raised over 1,100 dollars for Mrs. Jansen’s son’s scholarship fund,” choir director Elizabeth Warrner said.
Students who were impacted through Jansen’s commitment to performing arts at this school will continue her work and legacy at LN.
Senior Jada Radford reflects on the impact that Jansen had on her own life and participation in the performing arts department.
“My sophomore and junior year I did marching band, and each season that you do it is, like, 700 dollars. I was doing show choir on top of that, and that was just a lot of money that I didn’t have. Mrs. Jansen was really helpful with all of that, and I know that there are tons of other students that she helped in that way,” Radford said.
Jansen will be deeply missed by the LN performing arts department, and the Lawrence Township community as a whole. Her immense impact will continue to show.
“I wish that more people knew of her. I know that if you weren’t in performing arts that you probably wouldn’t have known Mrs. Jansen that well, but she was awesome,” Radford said.