{"id":51395,"date":"2018-05-07T09:26:56","date_gmt":"2018-05-07T16:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=51395"},"modified":"2018-05-25T11:59:04","modified_gmt":"2018-05-25T18:59:04","slug":"jasper-family-graduation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/jasper-family-graduation\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduates Jerri, Hannah, Leanna and Caleb Jasper: A love of learning inspired this family to become Lumberjacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Heidi Toth<\/strong>
\nNAU Communications<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

When Caleb Jasper<\/strong> walks across the stage at commencement on Saturday, he\u2019ll be the first in his family to earn his degree from NAU, despite being the youngest.<\/p>\n

Of course, the next three names called will be those of his two sisters and his mother, so it’s really more of a tie.<\/p>\n

The family, who are from Long Island, New York, are all earning their bachelor of liberal arts degree through NAU\u2019s Personalized Learning program<\/a>. They didn\u2019t start out intending to have a family graduation, leaving dad Jason taking all the pictures, but when they realized it was possible, the four Jasper students got to work.<\/p>\n

Mother Jerri Jasper<\/strong> was the first Lumberjack in the family. She realized a year or so ago she was finally at a place with her family and her job that she could go back to school and finish her bachelor\u2019s degree. She looked around for affordable online options and found NAU\u2019s Personalized Learning program. For $3,000, she could get a six-month subscription, enabling her to take as many courses as she wanted in that time.<\/p>\n

She decided to take all the courses and finish three years of a degree in one subscription. That meant not a few 18-hour days. (She was the first to finish too.)<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil I began, I was unsure if it was humanly possible to finish everything in one subscription, but I knew if it was, I wanted to do it,\u201d she said. \u201cOnce I found a groove and could see the possibility, we changed everything possible about our family schedules and my work schedule to make it possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after Jerri started, her three children, who had started college through a dual enrollment program at Davis College in New York, were looking for a less expensive way to continue their degrees. They enrolled in the same program, also cranking out credits to finish in six months in addition to working part-time to pay for their subscriptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn regard to what we were looking for, it was by far the best option we could find,\u201d Caleb said. \u201cThe price was right, the timing was right, the program was right. All across the board, it matched what we needed at the time of transferring schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerri said for about a month her husband, Jason, was responsible for all the cooking, home upkeep, laundry and everything else, including his full-time job as a pastor, to make sure they could all finish.<\/p>\n

The children had always been home-schooled\u2014Jason worked in Kosovo when Hannah<\/strong>, their oldest, started school, and there were no English-speaking schools, so Jerri taught her, continuing to do so when they returned to the United States\u2014so this learning environment was familiar to the family. Hannah said she leaned on Caleb\u2019s knowledge of math and science and Leanna\u2019s<\/strong> knowledge of film to get through some of her classes. She also relied on her father\u2019s knowledge of time management; he helped her create a schedule so she could get all the work done on time.<\/p>\n

She also found help from her NAU mentor and instructors, particularly when she found herself close to the end of her subscription.<\/p>\n

\u201cI jokingly told my mother that we should send our mentor, Michael Smith<\/strong>, a fruit basket for how hard he worked with us to get us finished, but I genuinely appreciate the effort he put in for three people he hardly knows,\u201d she said. \u201cIt says a lot about NAU staff that they have people like him.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for what\u2019s next: Flagstaff is one stop of their yearlong North American RV tour. The family is taking a gap year together, living in a 31-foot trailer and exploring the United States, Mexico and Canada. Leanna, 20, said she\u2019s looking forward to exploring museums, aquariums and all of the unique and beautiful sights each state has to offer.<\/p>\n

Along the way, they\u2019re all hoping to do a little soul-searching. Jason said each of them has considered graduate school, Jerri especially, but that may or may not be next in line.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I have a slight idea of what I would like to do after our journey, but I need to figure out how to get there,\u201d Hannah, 21, said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping to open and run my own nonprofit organization that focuses on sending people out to help with orphanages in any capacity. I grew up in a loving home, and I want to help children who do not have this same opportunity in any way I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping you could tell me,\u201d Caleb, 18, added when discussing his next goals. \u201cThat\u2019s part of what we\u2019re trying to figure out along this journey, because I don\u2019t know what the next step looks like for me. But I don\u2019t say that with fear. I am excited for what comes next, even though I have yet to find it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, his next step includes \u201cdipping our toes in as many musical experiences as possible, but I\u2019ll have to convince the rest of the group.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Heidi Toth NAU Communications When Caleb Jasper walks across the stage at commencement on Saturday, he\u2019ll be the first in his family to earn his degree from NAU, despite being the youngest. Of course, the next three names called will be those of his two sisters and his mother, so it’s really more of…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":51396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}