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Alumni Spotlight: Jessica Friss, Class of 2015
August 12, 2026
In the Alumni Highlights series, we have caught up with City High alumni to see what they’ve been up to post-graduation. This installment focuses on Jessica Friss of City High Class of 2015.
Jessica Friss pictured on the river, where she spends most of her time doing programming for Three Rivers Waterkeeper!
Q: What did you think would be your career path when you were a student at City High? How has that changed or stayed the same after graduating high school?
When I was a student at City High, I knew that I really favored science and math. I did my internship at the (then) Carnegie Science Center in the Buhl Planetarium and was really fascinated with space and astronomy. Then I took physics and realized it wasn’t tangible enough for me. During the end of high school, I received my Girl Scout Gold Award for helping to plant a rain garden in my community. Much like at the Science Center, I enjoyed spending time getting to know people and creating shared experiences.
Q: Tell us more about your post high school educational experiences!
After high school I went to Robert Morris University where I graduated with honors with a B.S. in Environmental Science. While at RMU, I served on executive board for many clubs– like when I was Co-Chapter Director for RMU’s Chapter of Strong Women, Strong Girls which was a mentoring program for elementary school girls. I also worked at RMU’s Counseling Center as a Thrive Leader which is what they called the group of students that served as a liaison between the Counseling Center and students by putting on outreach programs and events that positively impacted students and their
mental health awareness. Being in the University Honors Program, I also had to write an undergraduate thesis. Instead of conducting lab research, I decided to do a case study to determine how environmental quality varies by socioeconomic status and racial composition in Pittsburgh. Along with assessing existing data sources, I interviewed community members to get their perspective on the environmental quality of their neighborhoods.
After I graduated college, I served in AmeriCorps for two terms at the local program, Public Allies Pittsburgh. There, I learned and practiced equity focused leadership skills for social impact, capacity-building non-profit work, and asset-based community development.
In combination with researching for my undergraduate thesis, all my extracurricular activities at college, spending my summers working as a camp counselor at the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, and my time in Public Allies Pittsburgh— I realized that I really, really wanted a career in doing something that made a difference while also getting to spend time outside and with the community.
Q: What was your internship experience at City High like? How did it inform your college experience and/or career trajectory?
My internship was at the Carnegie Science Center in the Buhl Planetarium, and I remember really enjoying getting to spend time there. I believe it taught me responsibility as well as “people skills.” It also taught me that working and having fun at the same time is possible. Even though I didn’t go on to study physics in college, I think that it helped start to build this idea that I can merge science and community together.
Q: How did City High prepare you for life after high school?
I think City High prepared me for life after high school in a lot of ways I expected. I had a resume built. I knew how to send a professional-ish email. I was pretty good at different Microsoft Suite applications. I could balance my time between classes just like I had done my senior year.
Q: What do you think was the most important skill that you learned at City High and use in your adult life?
I think a lot of the stuff we learned to do on the computer I still use a lot to this day. Like writing formulas on Excel, editing videos, and just generally being able to understand what I needed to learn on technology to get a task done. It sounds really generic, but I think that it was, at the time of graduating high school, something not a lot of students were getting in-depth experience with.
Jessica's City High senior photo
Q: Tell us about your current role and organization!
I’m the Director of Community Programs at Three Rivers Waterkeeper which is a local environmental nonprofit that works to protect and restore the rivers in Southwestern
Pennsylvania. We serve as both a scientific and legal advocate for our waterways, holding polluters accountable and empowering communities to protect their right to
clean water.
I am responsible for putting together our educational programming like teaching people how to spot and report water pollution while on kayak or our Waterkeeper boat. We also hold a bunch of different types of programming like art-based ecology research on natural pigments near riparian zones, ecology walk & talks, clothing swaps, and other watershed education programs. Recently, we just held our annual Allegheny River Sojourn where nearly 80 people
joined us in Franklin, PA to kayak 9 miles down river!
Q: What do you love most about your current role?
I love getting the chance to work with community members and other local nonprofits as well as putting on fun programming that gets people outside and connected to their local waterways. Being able to have a mix of working on creative stuff on my laptop as well as spending time outside is the best. I also love that it’s pretty open-ended where I get to create new kinds of events or experiment with different ways to get information across. I’m fortunate to work with amazing people at my organization who help to build up these programs that engage and educate our community.
Q: What advice would you have to someone interested in pursuing a career in your field?
Is it stereotypical to say that volunteering and interning at environmental nonprofits is your best bet to determine what you like best? There are also many different ways to get involved in environmental jobs– it all just depends on what you want your day-to-day to look like. Think about if you want to spend all day in a lab conducting research, or out in the field studying a specific type of bird. Think about what you would hate to do if you had to do it every single day. That kind of stuff helps.
I also think that any type of program– like AmeriCorps (no matter how rough) or seasonal outdoor jobs are a really good way to get your foot in the door and gain necessary experience and skills that jobs in the environmental or nonprofit field are going to want to see. You also learn what you like and don’t like about different types of roles.
I believe it’s also possible to mesh your interests. Like if you’re an environmentalist, but you want to get some type of writing or communications degree– environmental nonprofits will always be posting roles for people to help write grants or their communications.
Q: City High is big on preparing students for the real world by promoting work-life balance. How do you maintain work-life balance? Where do you find joy in your life outside of work?
Unfortunately, I truly do believe in that motto that’s like “if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.” Not everyday is perfect, but I’m very happy with where I’m at. That being said, I do think that working a job where I work evenings and weekends (even if it’s kayaking!) requires some level of balance. Fortunately, I am able to flex my time so I don’t have super long days which helps a lot with burnout. Outside of work I really enjoy spending time with my friends, doing art projects, thrifting for cool home decor and CDs and records to add to my collection, and getting outside. Right now, I’m trying to get more into fishing. I swear I say this every summer, but I think this year is going to be the year.
Q: Can you share some advice for current City High students?
Good luck, haha. No, but for real, I think that it’s important to spend less time caring about what other people think you should be doing and spend more time standing up for what you believe in. In the grand scheme of things, high school is very short– but it’s also a very fun (relative) and interesting (also relative) time.
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If you are a City High alumni and are interested in being highlighted, you can email napolitan@cityhigh.org.
--
Jessica Friss pictured on the river, where she spends most of her time doing programming for Three Rivers Waterkeeper!
Q: What did you think would be your career path when you were a student at City High? How has that changed or stayed the same after graduating high school?
When I was a student at City High, I knew that I really favored science and math. I did my internship at the (then) Carnegie Science Center in the Buhl Planetarium and was really fascinated with space and astronomy. Then I took physics and realized it wasn’t tangible enough for me. During the end of high school, I received my Girl Scout Gold Award for helping to plant a rain garden in my community. Much like at the Science Center, I enjoyed spending time getting to know people and creating shared experiences.
Q: Tell us more about your post high school educational experiences!
After high school I went to Robert Morris University where I graduated with honors with a B.S. in Environmental Science. While at RMU, I served on executive board for many clubs– like when I was Co-Chapter Director for RMU’s Chapter of Strong Women, Strong Girls which was a mentoring program for elementary school girls. I also worked at RMU’s Counseling Center as a Thrive Leader which is what they called the group of students that served as a liaison between the Counseling Center and students by putting on outreach programs and events that positively impacted students and their
mental health awareness. Being in the University Honors Program, I also had to write an undergraduate thesis. Instead of conducting lab research, I decided to do a case study to determine how environmental quality varies by socioeconomic status and racial composition in Pittsburgh. Along with assessing existing data sources, I interviewed community members to get their perspective on the environmental quality of their neighborhoods.
After I graduated college, I served in AmeriCorps for two terms at the local program, Public Allies Pittsburgh. There, I learned and practiced equity focused leadership skills for social impact, capacity-building non-profit work, and asset-based community development.
In combination with researching for my undergraduate thesis, all my extracurricular activities at college, spending my summers working as a camp counselor at the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, and my time in Public Allies Pittsburgh— I realized that I really, really wanted a career in doing something that made a difference while also getting to spend time outside and with the community.
Q: What was your internship experience at City High like? How did it inform your college experience and/or career trajectory?
My internship was at the Carnegie Science Center in the Buhl Planetarium, and I remember really enjoying getting to spend time there. I believe it taught me responsibility as well as “people skills.” It also taught me that working and having fun at the same time is possible. Even though I didn’t go on to study physics in college, I think that it helped start to build this idea that I can merge science and community together.
Q: How did City High prepare you for life after high school?
I think City High prepared me for life after high school in a lot of ways I expected. I had a resume built. I knew how to send a professional-ish email. I was pretty good at different Microsoft Suite applications. I could balance my time between classes just like I had done my senior year.
Q: What do you think was the most important skill that you learned at City High and use in your adult life?
I think a lot of the stuff we learned to do on the computer I still use a lot to this day. Like writing formulas on Excel, editing videos, and just generally being able to understand what I needed to learn on technology to get a task done. It sounds really generic, but I think that it was, at the time of graduating high school, something not a lot of students were getting in-depth experience with.
Jessica's City High senior photo
Q: Tell us about your current role and organization!
I’m the Director of Community Programs at Three Rivers Waterkeeper which is a local environmental nonprofit that works to protect and restore the rivers in Southwestern
Pennsylvania. We serve as both a scientific and legal advocate for our waterways, holding polluters accountable and empowering communities to protect their right to
clean water.
I am responsible for putting together our educational programming like teaching people how to spot and report water pollution while on kayak or our Waterkeeper boat. We also hold a bunch of different types of programming like art-based ecology research on natural pigments near riparian zones, ecology walk & talks, clothing swaps, and other watershed education programs. Recently, we just held our annual Allegheny River Sojourn where nearly 80 people
joined us in Franklin, PA to kayak 9 miles down river!
Q: What do you love most about your current role?
I love getting the chance to work with community members and other local nonprofits as well as putting on fun programming that gets people outside and connected to their local waterways. Being able to have a mix of working on creative stuff on my laptop as well as spending time outside is the best. I also love that it’s pretty open-ended where I get to create new kinds of events or experiment with different ways to get information across. I’m fortunate to work with amazing people at my organization who help to build up these programs that engage and educate our community.
Q: What advice would you have to someone interested in pursuing a career in your field?
Is it stereotypical to say that volunteering and interning at environmental nonprofits is your best bet to determine what you like best? There are also many different ways to get involved in environmental jobs– it all just depends on what you want your day-to-day to look like. Think about if you want to spend all day in a lab conducting research, or out in the field studying a specific type of bird. Think about what you would hate to do if you had to do it every single day. That kind of stuff helps.
I also think that any type of program– like AmeriCorps (no matter how rough) or seasonal outdoor jobs are a really good way to get your foot in the door and gain necessary experience and skills that jobs in the environmental or nonprofit field are going to want to see. You also learn what you like and don’t like about different types of roles.
I believe it’s also possible to mesh your interests. Like if you’re an environmentalist, but you want to get some type of writing or communications degree– environmental nonprofits will always be posting roles for people to help write grants or their communications.
Q: City High is big on preparing students for the real world by promoting work-life balance. How do you maintain work-life balance? Where do you find joy in your life outside of work?
Unfortunately, I truly do believe in that motto that’s like “if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.” Not everyday is perfect, but I’m very happy with where I’m at. That being said, I do think that working a job where I work evenings and weekends (even if it’s kayaking!) requires some level of balance. Fortunately, I am able to flex my time so I don’t have super long days which helps a lot with burnout. Outside of work I really enjoy spending time with my friends, doing art projects, thrifting for cool home decor and CDs and records to add to my collection, and getting outside. Right now, I’m trying to get more into fishing. I swear I say this every summer, but I think this year is going to be the year.
Q: Can you share some advice for current City High students?
Good luck, haha. No, but for real, I think that it’s important to spend less time caring about what other people think you should be doing and spend more time standing up for what you believe in. In the grand scheme of things, high school is very short– but it’s also a very fun (relative) and interesting (also relative) time.
–
If you are a City High alumni and are interested in being highlighted, you can email napolitan@cityhigh.org.
