Jennifer Ball

Jennifer has researched written language for more than nine years, read over 100 books, is in her eighth year of Mandarin, and has compared cuneiform, hieroglyphs, Maya glyphs, Chinese characters, and more—all ancient written scripts—in order to showcase the similarities that exist between them and the alphabet. Jennifer Ball has an MFA in Creative Writing from SDSU (BFA in Theater from UCLA). She taught two terms of English 101 at SDSU and four terms of college English at Soochow University in Suzhou, China—for a total of 453 students. Jennifer throws condoms and tampons at her students because English can be so boring. That really enlivens a class and helps spark needed conversation. Jennifer also has her students play Musical Chairs as a lesson on mortality, and then gives away bike helmets to whomever promises to wear them. The classes also make Mobiüs Strips, test their drinking water, go to dinner, and so much more. Jennifer has taken some of her previous Chinese students to the US and to Spain. Jennifer also taught five years of computer graphics at Platt Technical College in San Diego. Jennifer was the music editor for the SD Reader for almost eight years; she has played in rock bands for 33 years with her husband, Dr. Michael Varney, head of Research and Early Development at Genentech/Roche. They have played in the band Fingerpuppets for the last ten years. Jennifer Ball's Chinese name is 包弫 Bao Zhen (bao1 zhen3). In Chinese, last names come first. Bao/Ball. Zhen/Jennifer. The little known 弫 means "impactful, powerful."