Opening Doors to Opportunity

Through an endowed scholarship, Jessica (Betel) Loovis, B.S. Arch ’05, seeks to make a Taubman College education more accessible.

There was never any doubt about which university Jessica (Betel) Loovis, B.S. Arch ’05, would attend after high school. 

Her mother, two older sisters, aunt, uncle, cousins, and friends in West Bloomfield, Michigan, all headed to the Ann Arbor campus when they reached college age.

“We were born and bred to go to Michigan,” Jessica says. “It was a foregone conclusion in my family. The minute one of us graduated from the university in the spring, another one of us started classes the following fall. My family attended football games in the Big House for 12 straight years. We were baked-in Wolverines.”

Those maize-and-blue credentials and connections have proven invaluable to Jessica throughout her personal life and professional career. The strong educational underpinnings she acquired at Taubman College have given her the knowledge, tools, and confidence to think big and act boldly.

Jessica’s strong ties to Michigan also have prompted her to give back to the university by establishing a new endowed scholarship at Taubman College that honors one of her former classmates.

Gaining a Broader Perspective

Today, as principal and vice president at Atlanta-based design firm ASD | SKY, Jessica is well-positioned to reflect on the major inflection points in her career and how Taubman College prepared her to take on new challenges.

“Initially, I was attracted to architecture by the confluence of art and design with math,” she explains. “I felt it was a practical way to blend those two interests.” 

At the time Jessica matriculated through Taubman College, architecture was a junior-level program, which translated to spending the first two years in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. 

“I had a more traditional undergraduate experience,” she explains. “It afforded me the opportunity to engage and interact with Michigan’s diverse community and exposed me to a more extensive non-architecture curriculum.”

A critical component of the architectural curriculum is regularly presenting and defending project work. Her classmates consistently produced more curated and creative work; however, Jessica recognized she had an ability to convey her ideas in an effective, compelling manner that resulted in successful reviews. 

“In retrospect, I realize my ability to articulate complex design ideas to a diverse audience sets me up well for business development,” she observes.

After Jessica graduated from Michigan in 2005, she landed her first job in Atlanta at the architectural firm Cooper Carry. 

In 2008, she enrolled in graduate school at the Georgia Institute of Technology to earn a Master of Architecture degree. Two years later, a friend connected her to ASD | SKY, where she was hired as an architect on the design side.

An Unplanned Pivot

In 2011, the CEO of ASD | SKY approached Jessica and offered her an opportunity to lead the firm’s business development.

“I was 28 years old, and I had no idea what that actually meant,” she says. “But I decided to go for it. As it turned out, making the transition from traditional design to business development was the best decision I ever made.”

Suddenly, all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

“My background in architecture gave me an understanding of the profession and the process,” Jessica says. “I can speak intelligently, and I have both the credibility as a registered architect and the capability to communicate design concepts effectively to our clients.”

In 2018, Jessica was promoted to principal and vice president with responsibility for leading business development and cultivating client relationships for the company’s 13 offices nationwide. 

“I love being part of a profession that is shaping our built environment and designing the places people choose to go,” she says. “We have a direct relationship with people and the ways in which they experience the world.”

Reconnecting with Taubman College

Jessica began reconnecting with Taubman College in 2020 and joined the Alumni Council the following fall. 

“As a council member, I’ve gotten to meet great people and peek behind the curtain, so to speak,” she says. “I feel I have a much deeper connection to the college now than I did when I was in school, partly because of Dean Jonathan Massey’s leadership. The alumni community is amazing and holds such stature all around the country.”

 Jessica began thinking about various ways to support scholarships for students. She teamed up with her good friend, Whitney Kraus, B.S. Arch ’05, to endow a memorial scholarship that pays tribute to their former classmate, Aggie Drelich, who had passed away.

“I have such positive feelings toward the University of Michigan and my Taubman College education, and I recognize how integral this background is to my professional and personal development,” Jessica remarks. 

“I love the idea of making that background more accessible to others, especially as higher education costs rise, because Michigan opens so many doors,” she adds. “The beauty of Michigan is that no matter where you go or what you do, Michigan matters.”

— Claudia Capos