And given her track record to date she looks set to make her mark in this challenging field of human endeavour.
Her most recent success was a charity dinner in Tauranga last weekend which raised more than $35,000 for four different charities.
More than 250 people attended the black tie Soiree Four Charity which raised money for local charities Good Neighbour and Homes of Hope as well as for Baby Watoto of Uganda and the people of Manado in Indonesia.
Gordon, whose day job is an oral health practitioner at Jennifer Corson Dental, told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend that she has always had a desire to help the underdog.
"All of my spare time is put into either volunteer events or a project and if I won Lotto tomorrow I would happily move to Africa to start something that could contribute to those less fortunate.
"It's how I get a kick out of life and I wouldn't dream of living my life in any other way. I basically work to fund these things."
To date her charitable activities have taken her to Cambodia and Uganda where she was profoundly affected by the plight of so many people.
"I met one little girl in Watoto in Uganda who was two years old and had no hands or feet.
"I thought she must have been abandoned because of her disabilities, but what actually happened was that she was left on the side of the road and when she was found dogs were chewing on her limbs.
"When I first saw her behind Watoto's gates this beautiful girl was so happy, her presence moved me."
Gordon says such scenes have affected her in ways she finds hard to describe.
"When you give yourself to someone who really, really needs you, the love and gratitude you see on their faces makes you feel you have served something bigger than you.
"And if I could feel that and only that feeling for the rest of my days I would have the perfect life."
Gordon's empathy for the less fortunate is not surprising given some of her own experiences closer to home.
Five years ago one of her brothers, Matthew, was critically injured in an industrial accident that left him paralysed and in a wheelchair.
It occurred while her parents were on holiday overseas, leaving her to step up to the mark.
"I was the one called to the hospital and for 10 days I was his carer, making big decisions about surgeries and I went into a second mum role.
"I got very protective over him and still am. He is very inspiring and continues to defy the odds."
Today Matthew has taught himself to walk with crutches and recently competed in his first power-lifting competition.
Gordon says he is "a testament to the love of my parents who taught all of us kids never to give up and always to keep fighting".
"They love us unconditionally and fully and I couldn't be who I am without them."
Not surprisingly her parents, Craig and Sherryll Gordon, are in awe over what she's achieved.
"We are extremely proud of the young woman that she has become," they told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend.
"She has amazing character and is so compassionate and driven with these events. She believes in the cause and she wants to make a difference.
"She loves and cares so deeply about things close to her heart that she won't let go until she sees the outcome she believes is deserved."
However, their love for her was put to the test when she went through a rebellious stage at the age of 15.
Gordon, herself, describes it as an extremely trying time for all concerned.
"It's something that most people in my life now don't know much about and I tend to keep it very close to me as I don't like reliving a time I am pretty ashamed of.
"I was the kid a lot of people probably looked at and thought 'oh what a waste, she's not going anywhere in life'.
"People from back then who see what I'm doing now are usually very shocked. I would describe that time as dark and twisty and my self-worth was next to nothing."
Her parents remember the time only too well.
"This period was incredibly stressful for all of us. "We always said Jessica had the personality and drive to go one of two ways in life.
"She loved the challenge and the thrill of exploring outside the boundaries, but she eventually decided that those places were not where she wanted to be and came back to our home environment.
"It was a huge relief for sure."
Gordon says she managed to get her life back on track by moving to another school and "getting away from the bad influences I had surrounded myself with."
"They say you are a combination of the five people you spend most of your time with so I got better friends, got good grades at school and a good reference which got me accepted into university."
So off she went to AUT where she completed a Bachelor of Oral Health Science and completely turned her life around.
It was then that she decided to give something back to the world and went to Cambodia in 2013 to help an organisation called the Princess Project, run by Tauranga couple Ben and Cherie McGonagle.
She ran a week-long dental clinic for the project as well as helping out with some house building.
Emboldened by the experience she decided to widen her horizons and visited Uganda earlier this year, meeting 10-year-old Lillian, who she sponsors, as well as doing voluntary work for the Baby Watoto charity, that looks after abandoned babies.
Meeting Lillian, who was then squatting in a single-room mud hut with her elderly grandmother and three siblings, and largely existing on one meal a day, left her speechless.
"It made me sick to see the conditions some people live in over there and moved me like no other project that I have been involved with.
"I just cried for ages and felt physically sick afterwards. It's hard to believe we are on the same planet as them."
After returning to New Zealand Gordon discovered that Lillian and her family had been evicted from the hut and were staying in a nearby church.
To help them buy a plot of land to live on, she has raised $2700 on Givealittle and will give the money to them when she returns to Uganda at the end of the year.
"If people just give a little bit it can be a huge help."
She says a three-bedroom house on fertile land with running water or a well costs about $15,000 in Uganda.
Next year promises to be a big one for Gordon and her fiance of three weeks Jimmy Davis, who is a teacher at Te Puke Intermediate School.
The pair plan to visit Sri Lanka and India for a few months on their way to London where Gordon hopes to find work in her chosen profession of dentistry.
Davis, as you might expect, is her biggest fan and is full of admiration for her charity work.
"She always thinks of others' needs before her own," he told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend.
"She would prefer to give a gift and see the joy of someone receiving it far more than getting a present herself.
"Her motivation and enthusiasm to help others continually blows my mind."
Despite moving to the other side of the world Gordon has no intention of walking away from her fundraising activities.
With the help of friends she is already planning next year's Soiree Four Charity in Tauranga and intends to be there in person.
The self-confessed charity junkie is still haunted by images of the Rwanda genocide that she saw on television as a 5-year-old in 1994.
It was this that triggered her commitment to helping those afflicted by poverty, pestilence and persecution.
And nothing rattles her cage more than people who take offence at beggars.
"Every life is of equal value," she says.
"We are all humans and it sickens me sometimes that we accept that it's okay for people to live in such a state where begging is the only real option for survival.
"Those of us who are able to help, should, and once they have they will want to do it again and again."
Gordon believes New Zealanders should take to heart the mantra of former British Olympian Steve Backley who, in his book The Champion in All of Us: 12 Rules For Success, says:
"There are three types of people in this world. Firstly, there are people who make things happen.
"Then there are people who watch things happen. "Lastly, there are people who ask, what happened?
"Which do you want to be?"
There's no mistaking which sort of person Gordon wants to be, her mission in life summed up in two short sentences.
"My vision for this lifetime is to change a life, even just one.
"My vision is to help those less fortunate than myself in any way I can."
Given such resolve she may well be on course to inherit the mantle of Dame Rosie Horton and become New Zealand's next Charity Queen.
