Jackie Trujillo appears to be seasoned for any crisis that comes her way.
During the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting on the Strip, she led her sisters and a stranger to safety. Now, as a member of the Nevada National Guard, the 20-year-old Trujillo is on the front lines of the coronavirus relief efforts in Las Vegas.
Gov. Steve Sisolak summoned the Guard in early April to expand the state’s emergency response to the virus.
Trujillo, who is also a UNLV student, joined the Guard when she was 17 because community service is something she’s been passionate about since childhood.
“I learned from my family lineage that freedom isn’t free,” she said, referencing stories told from relatives who came to the United States from Cuba during the Cuban Revolution. “I feel like I have a lot of firsthand information from their stories of coming to America and what those freedoms are and what that means to them. It became a part of me.”
The mantra of freedom coming with a cost is something they teach in the military as well, Trujillo said. She was able to find camaraderie among her military and first-responder peers and even her fiancé, Christian Marsigliano, who has been deployed with the U.S. Navy on the USS Harry S. Truman since November.
The Guard seemed like an obvious choice for Trujillo, who wanted to be a first-responder in emergency situations to her local community.
She, unfortunately, got that chance at the music festival on the Strip three years ago when a gunman opened fire from overhead on concertgoers. Trujillo had just completed basic training and was in town to celebrate her grandfather’s birthday. It was a weekend celebration that turned into a tragedy.
When the shooting started, Trujillo and her two young sisters found themselves separated from the rest of their family. Her main goal was to get herself and her sisters out safely.
Along the way, Trujillo found another survivor who she also helped lead to safety. Together, they were able to comfort one another.
“Experiencing something like that gives you a different perspective on life and it makes you more appreciative of every second, every moment you have,” she said.
Trujillo also owes her response to the event to her Guard training.
“People had always asked me why I chose to join the military at 17, at such a young age,” she said. “Really I’m just grateful that I chose to do that because my training helped me a lot that night in a lot of ways.”
Two years later, Trujillo would find herself on the front lines of another crisis: COVID-19.
When she first found out about the new coronavirus outbreak in March, she was eager to do whatever she could to help with the response.
“I think the main difference between this and (Oct. 1) is I know what the mission is and I know what my responsibility is and I know we are prepared to handle anything that comes our way … knowing that I could handle an experience as tragic as (Oct. 1) I know I can tackle anything that comes my way.”
Trujillo is working at the command post for one of the task forces responding to COVID-19 as a radiotelephone operator. She helps relay information on missions and plans logistical information.
This is all on top of her studies as a criminal justice and communications sophomore at UNLV.
“It’s been a little bit of a struggle to balance all of it,” she said. “My schedule has been a little bit hectic between school and work.”
The experience has taught Trujillo invaluable skills in communication between Guard leaders, her professors and even her family. It’s also taught her how to take time for self-care and exercise.
“Working out is my main way I cope with everything,” she said. “I make time for it.”
UNLV criminal justice professor Joel Lieberman said he was immediately taken by how engaging Trujillo was in class, even during Zoom video meetings.
Lieberman, who supervises a course called Urban Adventure — a scenario-based class that has students solve a hypothetical crime — said in a virtual environment, Trujillo stood out among her peers.
“The quality of questions she was asking was very high, well-thought out, which involved a lot of deep thinking on her part,” he said.
Lieberman also lauded Trujillo’s natural leadership skills and her ability to take charge in a constructive way.
“It’s easy for people to think leadership means telling people what to do and it doesn’t,” he said. “It means getting people to work together and to motivate them. She was very good at that.”