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Joy Jacobs has been an instructor in the department since 1998, teaching between 350 and 400 students per semester in one of the department's introductory courses, HDFS 145 "The Individual, Marriage, and the Family." Her goal - to teach at least 10,000 students in this course - was reached when she retiredy. She was an undergraduate academic advisor for more than 20 years, has been associated with the Study Away Program in Hawaii, and she taught a section of the UGS 101 "freshman seminar" each Fall for many years.
Ms. Jacobs is the faculty advisor for MSU's chapter of Kappa Omicron Nu national honor society in the human sciences; is currently Secretary and was President three times of the Michigan Association of Family & Consumer Sciences; is a member of Family and Consumer Science Educators of Michigan; has been an officer of the Presidents' Unit of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences; and is Past President of the Lansing Area Home Economists in Action and of the MSU Extension Women's Club. She also served on the College of Human Ecology Alumni Association Board of Directors and on the Centennial Committee of Omicron Nu.
Ms. Jacobs earned her B.S. in Home Economics from Illinois State University and her M.A. in Home Economics Education from Michigan State University. She is Certified in Family Consumer Science/Human Development and Family Science by AAFCS, and is a member of the honor societies Omicron Nu and Kappa Omicron Phi (now merged into Kappa Omicron Nu).
She and her husband, professor emeritus in the Department of Crop & Soil Sciences, have four grown daughters (a marriage & family therapist, a chemical engineer, a medical social worker, and a packaging engineer). Three of their daughters are married, and they have four grandchildren. Ms. Jacobs and her husband enjoy traveling, spending time with their family, and all kinds of athletics. They have had season tickets for MSU football, hockey and women's basketball for more than 35 years. Their "Jacobs Family Scholarship" in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies was established to honor Joy's mother-in-law, Marie Jacobs, who was a Home Economics teacher and inspired Joy to major in Home Economics in Education in college.