Lemons and Jarrett honored at state ceremony

Very few events can bring every Utah college and university together. However, on Tuesday, April 6 the presidents of all Utah campuses met at the Delta Center to recognize one student and one faculty member from each of their campuses that has shown outstanding efforts to be involved in combining coursework, with critical community needs and outstanding service to their campus and community. This year CEU presented these awards to student Jennifer Jarrett and faculty member Shelly Lemons.

Shelly Lemons
$25,000 and 13 years later, CEU’s celebrated history professor, Shelly Lemons, is riding high following the completion of her doctorate degree and receiving state and institutional awards for service and excellence.
Lemons began her collegiate career immediately following high school graduation.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in history at Missouri Southern State College, Joplin; master’s degree in diplomacy from Southwest Missouri State; then began seven years pursuing a doctorate degree in history.
In preparing for her dissertation’s defense, Lemons presented a total of five chapters from her dissertation to conference audiences across the United States.
During spring break 2004, Lemons flew to Oklahoma State University to defend her dissertation on prostitution as a vehicle of masculine power and racial buffer zone in her study of prostitution in Tulsa, Okla., 1900-1925.
March 10 is a day Lemons will never forget, a day in which all of her research and hard work finally paid-off with the addition of “Doctor” and “Ph.D.” to her name.
“It’s not about being the smartest. It’s about being the most driven and determined, putting out the effort to get what you want and patience,” stated Lemons.
Lemons credits her success to the support of her CEU colleagues, Humanities Dean, Mike King, doctorate program friends and her husband.
” … Shelly came to us as a bright young scholar right out of her Ph.D. program.
“During the last 3 years she has focused on fine honing her teaching skills, developing new courses and completing her dissertation.
“The fact that she has been able to do all these things and do them well speaks volumes about her abilities.
“Shelly is a tremendous asset to the college and we are certainly glad she is an integral part of our campus community,” stated King.
Lemons joins the ranks of the 19 CEU faculty members with doctorate degrees, according to Lydia Petersen, human resources.
In addition to her academic title, Shelly Lemons, Ph.D. was also awarded the Utah Campus Compact Engaged Scholar Award and was voted CEU Instructor of the Year.
Lemons has been compiling an oral history of CEU for the past year, promoting faculty involvement with service learning programs and piloting a new course focusing on women in history.
CEU First Lady Ann Thomas presented the award amidst the collegiate “who’s who” gathering.
The most gratifying accomplishment this year for Lemons was being voted the CEU Instructor of the Year by the student body.
“It means the most to me, more than earning my degree. The students are why I’m here and for them to recognize me, it means a lot,” stated Lemons.
When asked what she plans to achieve next, Lemons stated that she is continuing her study of prostitution in Tulsa, Okla., through 1980. Several publishers have already indicated an interest in purchasing her manuscript.
Lemons will also present a 12- page synopsis of her dissertation in Las Vegas, Nev., October 2004.

Jennifer Jarrett
Jarrett is the daughter of Clark and Lisa Jarrett from Logan Utah. She came to CEU fall semester of 2002 after hearing so much good news about it from her sister Alisha. She has always been involved in community service and after coming to Price immediately got involved in the service opportunities here. “I think that I am an outgoing person,” Jarrett said, “That makes it easy for me to find opportunities of service and ways to get involved. I have always enjoyed being involved with anything that supports a good cause.”
The first organization she was able to get involved with was the YFP (Youth & Families with Promise) Mentoring Program. As soon as she heard about the program, she joined and was set up with two young girls, quickly becoming a mentor to help the at-risk youth in Carbon County. Since then Jarrett has become involved in several different volunteer programs through the school and the community.
One thing she has learned through her service has been realizing how lucky so many of us are. “I have worked with so many people who every day have made me think and realize how lucky I am for so many things I have.
When I get upset about something, sometimes I’ll get thinkin’ and realize that I am being really selfish and spoiled. I am glad that I have been able to learn and grow through each project I get involved with.”
This past semester Jarrett has been working as a SUN (Serving Utah Network) Leader over the mentoring program and also the CEU SUN Center president CEU’s SUN President. Everyone she works with has noticed her infectious desire to serve and constant happiness.
Wendy Bjarnson said on Jarrett, “She always puts children and service first, she has put so many hours into the program, she probably doesn’t know how much she has volunteered. She is always happy and her positive attitude spreads through the student body.”
Her roommates Amanda Wade and Dayna Petersen both agreed. Wade said, “Jen is always gone or leaving to do some type of service.
She is such a nice person and is always doing something for someone and never getting anything out of it for herself.” Petersen said, “Jen is a great leader and has gotten a lot of people involved in service.
I think it’s because she of her enthusiasm for what she does. She loves what she does and has fun doing it so people like to get involved and be around her.”
Jarrett said, “I think that CEU has done a great job getting service opportunities set up for the students here. I work with at least 23 student leaders in the SUN Center. They are all awesome people and do so much to help the students here get involved.
I think no matter what a person likes to do they could get involved and find at least one project they could get into. Each leader prepares at least one activity a month and a lot of them do several, one every week. They are all tons of fun so the activities are great.
While they were reading about me and announcing my name for the award it was really weird. I kept thinking of all these other people on campus who deserve the award a lot more than I do. We have an awesome student body here that really cares about their school and community. I thought that it was nice of them to choose me for the award, I was really honored to represent CEU, I hope that I really do represent our school well.”
Jarrett will be moving to New York during the summer and then home to Logan in the fall to continue her education and study at USU. She is majoring in English and minoring in Physical Education. After completing school she would like to be a high school English and P.E. teacher while coaching tennis. Kathy Murray said, “We don’t want her to go. We wish that she could just stay here forever. She has really helped make a difference and we are going to miss her a lot.”