MSLIS student publishes new adventure book

Jessica Smith

MSLIS student and author Jessica Smith, who uses the pen name Jessika Fleck, has published a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, Murder at the Old Willow Boarding School. In her latest book, readers (as students in the academy for gifted children) must solve their own murder and stop the killer from striking again.

"The actual idea for Murder at the Old Willow Boarding School simply came from my wanting to write a ghost story and my love for private school settings and murder mysteries," said Smith. "I blended those three concepts and then added some sparkly details. Choose Co. was excited because the concept—a main character being a ghost trying to solve her own murder—was unique to their list and to the Choose Your Own Adventure canon."

Smith started writing fiction when her two children were young, needing a creative outlet that "didn't require extensive set up or clean up." She has since published five novels for middle grade and young adult readers.

When she started her MSLIS studies, Smith was interested in becoming a youth librarian. However, her focus has since shifted to special collections, archives, and museum studies. At the iSchool, she is getting hands-on experience in those areas by working as a graduate hourly at the Oak Street Library Conservation Lab and Spurlock Museum. Smith hopes to continue working in the field when she graduates in December.

"My situation is a bit unique in that I’m fairly established in the Champaign-Urbana area. I have two teenaged kids and my husband is a sociology professor at Eastern Illinois University, so my job search radius is limited," she said. "However, I'm hopeful with the experience I've gained through the iSchool along with the multitude of past work experiences I bring along with me, that I'll find something fulfilling within my field. And I’ll absolutely continue writing."

Learn more about her work at jessikafleck.com.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

iSchool undergraduates selected as 2025 Community Academic Scholars

The Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI) has selected BSIS student Dhanvi Puttur and BSIS+DS student Lara Terpetschnig as 2025 Community-Academic Scholars. Representing nineteen majors and nine minors in eight colleges and schools at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and two additional universities, the eighteen scholars in this cohort encompass diverse fields of study, from community health to graphic design to statistics. 

BSIS+DS student Lara Terpetschnig and BSIS student Dhanvi Puttur

Guan successfully defends dissertation

Doctoral candidate Yingjun Guan successfully defended his dissertation, "Disambiguating Academic Institution Names: A Comprehensive Study of Authority Files, Linguistic Variations, and Computational Evaluation in PubMed Affiliations," on April 28. 

Yingjun Guan

Scholarship provides validation, motivation for Martinez

BSIS+DS student Fabian Martinez chose his major because he wanted to learn how to help people understand and interpret data and information. While his immediate plans include finding a job in data analytics, business analytics, consulting, or product management, his ultimate goal is "to create meaningful relationships and help make a meaningful impact in the world" in whatever way he can.

Fabian Martinez graduation

Spectrum Scholar Spotlight: Guadalupe Castillo

Twelve iSchool master's students were named 2024–2025 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School's scholars. MSLIS student Guadalupe Castillo earned her BA in international studies and Spanish and Latin American literature from the University of California, San Diego.

Guadalupe Castillo

iSchool researchers to present at CHI 2025

iSchool faculty and students will present their research at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025), which will be held from April 26 to May 1 in Yokohama, Japan.