From Relay to Rollins

PROVO, Utah – Dec 19, 2022 – Pursuing goals proves difficult when life becomes unpredictable and demanding. However, Jade Rogers, a manager at BYU Marriott’s Rollins Center for Technology and Entrepreneurship, appreciates the value in life’s uncertainty. Trusting that God continually helps her realize her potential, Rogers moves forward through change and hard times with faith.
 
A few years ago, as an entrepreneurial student herself, Rogers struggled with finding her place in the program. “As one of only a few girls in the program, I felt the difficulty of trying to fit in,” she recalls.
 
However, she embraced opportunities outside of her comfort zone. As a result, Rogers and her husband, Chandler, along with other classmates, cofounded Relay, an app designed to assist individuals attempting to conquer unwanted habits, including addictive behaviors. The business was introduced to the Rollins Center and grew under the guidance of Chris Crittenden, the center’s director and a teacher for entrepreneurial classes.
 
Relay eventually led Rogers to her current job. Her exemplary work on the company’s app design and other visual aspects caught the attention of Crittenden, who was teaching the class where Relay was developed. He hired Rogers almost immediately. Even though leaving the business was hard, she felt her move to the Rollins Center was for the best. “I feel good about leaving because my departure made room for another cofounder, and they're continuing to take the company in the direction it needs to go,” she says.
 
As the center’s creative and product manager, Rogers has given her all for the sake of promoting personal and collective creativity. She assisted in launching the student association’s new Creators’ brand this year, which makes entrepreneurship more accessible to students all over campus.
 
Rogers has embraced the challenge of creating more student engagement for the Rollins Center. Her skill set expanded rapidly as she learned to design a functional website, lead a large team, increase social media outreach, and devise interior design plans. She even invented the custom soda flavors that Creators’ members enjoy. Her commitment has been unwavering, but wearing so many hats does not come without added pressure and stress.
 
Even though Rogers is early in her career, she acknowledges the need to maintain balance in her life, which she knows is not always easy. “When you have to grind for long hours to achieve something, your life isn't always balanced. You want to make sure you’re not neglecting any areas of your life,” she says.
 
One area she finds especially important is mental health. Through patience and persistence, Rogers prioritizes her mental health, which helps her show up in a more impactful way at work. “By taking care of myself, especially through rest and preparation during slower weeks,” she says, “I am able to help take care of those I work with and assist them on meaningful projects.”
 
With life’s ever-present changes, Rogers seeks to rely on God and lean into the unknown. Doing so allows her to become more naturally intuitive. “Instead of trying to understand everything, I go with the flow and become more in tune with the subtle feelings of the Spirit and my own intuition,” she says.
 
She hopes to realize her potential as a mentor and a servant of God throughout her time at BYU Marriott. “I know that God wanted me in the Rollins Center for my personal growth and for the impact that I can make,” she says.
 
For Rogers, her goal is to help guide and support students as they become Christlike leaders. “The Rollins Center nurtures the divine creativity in our students. The students see possibilities and have the grit and the faith to partner with God to make things happen. They learn how to actually bring solutions to life, and the world needs more leaders who have developed their divine ability to create,” she says.