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Jaclyn Costello’s well-worn passport pages suggest much more than a simple love of traveling and living abroad. Each stamp from over 40 different countries represents a conscious decision to seek new ways of understanding the world and the human experience.
From a young age, Costello found herself asking questions like, “Where are we all from? And “Why are we here?” This innate curiosity led her to study cinema, literature, anthropology and oriental philosophy at New York University and Aix-en-Provence, France, and, ultimately, to UNLV International MFA Program.
As associate professor in residence at Specialized college, Costello carefully guides students to make connections between course material – often a diverse collection of poetry and prose on spiritual thought – and their lived experience. In 2016, she also launched the popular “Mindfulness in the Mountains” program to provide Honors College students with the opportunity to practice meditation together.
What was your inspiration to become an English teacher?
I don’t feel like I chose this career. He chose me. While working on my MFA at UNLV, I was assigned to teach as part of my postgraduate assistant. I never thought I’d teach at any level, but slowly realized I had a knack for it. I really enjoy connecting with people between the ages of 18-23; this age is such an informative, curious, exploratory, contemplative time, and it is exciting to play a part in a student’s life during this time of transformation.
Tell us about an “aha!” »Moment of your life
When my whole concept of God fell apart. I was already quite open-minded and humble about my understanding of the mystery of God, but at some point even my most expansive constructions broke, and the idea of God was no longer comforting at all. It has become something much bigger: more alien and other and beyond all comprehension, never, never, ever.
If you weren’t working at UNLV, where do you think you would be?
I would probably still be here in Las Vegas because I have other anchors docking me here, but once those are up you might be able to find me deep in a forest somewhere like Washington or Washington. Bavaria. Come visit. Magic teas await you and your room will be furnished with comfortable pillows and a view of the mountains.
What was the best advice you ever received?
The most important advice I ever received came to me when I was 8 years old. Unfortunately, my friend’s mother had just committed suicide. In a dream, she spoke to me with the most soothing, loving, and understanding voice I have ever heard. “Be yourself,” she said. It was deep because I had always felt that she was unhappy in life playing roles to meet the expectations of others. She seemed to be carrying pain because her life didn’t match who she was on the inside. His simple advice has repeatedly saved me from making decisions in my career and personal life that would have led me to distance myself from who I really was on the inside.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I am actually a very logical and scientific person. I mention this because I’m generally described as ‘spiritual’ or ‘creative’ or ‘bohemian’ – and these things are also true, as many of my interests show – I teach meditation, I disappear into the Amazon to work with medicine – women and men, I make my most important decisions based on my intuition. But my father was a very solid mathematician, and I look a lot like him too. I think about things, from all directions, and I have no beliefs about any aspect of reality; everything I understand is understood by testing various hypotheses.
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