It started in high school, sitting in a classroom with a government teacher who didn't yet know he was shaping a future lawmaker.
Jake Reese, a political science major graduating in December 2026, can trace almost every turn of his college career back to that classroom at Teays Valley High School, about ten minutes north of Circleville. His teacher, Michael Whitten, was also his mock trial coach, and a Capital University alumnus.
That mentorship pointed Reese toward Capital, but what kept him there was the atmosphere he found once he arrived.
"There's not a face that I can't associate a name with," he said describing Capital's tight-knit community, pointing to the school's roughly nine-to-one student-faculty ratio as the difference-maker.
"I love that when you look at larger schools and yes, those professors care about their students, but they don't know who their students are," he says. "With my advisor, I go in there just to have a conversation with him.”
Reese's ambitions, though, go back even further than high school.
"I was in seventh or eighth grade when I told my dad I wanted to be a representative," Reese said. "I wanted to work in government."
That early goal shaped nearly every decision since, through ROTC, mock trial, and eventually into an internship with the Ohio State House.
"Every little thing has just been building," he said. “Since the day I said I wanted to be a representative, that was the day I started working towards my goal.”
The internship itself came about almost by accident. Reese had been working on a research paper on Cold War-era international relations theory when he hit a wall.
"One day I woke up and I was like; I don't want to write another paper," he said. So instead, he started making calls, reconnecting with his old mock trial advisor, who passed his resume along to State Representative Brian Stewart's office.
"I got a call from the House saying I should apply," Reese says. "It's honestly been like a yellow brick road. I've just been going down it, and it's been working out."
What he found there was politics at its most human, helping constituents navigate everything from disability services to financial aid disputes, regardless of party.
"Making sure that they are seen and heard, that has been a huge part of the internship," Reese said. "It does not matter what your political party is. We are here to serve you."
Back on campus, Reese credits Capital's Kappa Sigma fraternity with a different kind of transformation.
"I used to have very big confidence issues, just presenting myself to other people," said Reese. Now the chapter's Grand Scribe, he's built a service program that's logged roughly 80 volunteer hours per member.
‘I want to be that light for someone else," Reese said. “It’s been amazing.”
Every thread of Reese's story, the mentor, the fraternity, the internship he almost didn't apply for, leads to the same place: the Statehouse floor, and eventually, a law degree that will let him write the rules instead of just studying them.
"If you're going to create laws, you should understand how they work,” Reese said.
It's a conviction he's carried since high school, and one Capital has only sharpened. With his sights set on international law and foreign policy, he remains grounded in the same conviction that's carried him this far that understanding people matters more than any title.