Meet The Person:
Jason is a Technology Education teacher at Boiling Springs High School in Boiling Springs, PA. He has been teaching there for 7 years now and is in his 8th year of teacher; his first year at Council Rock North High School in Newtown, PA.
Professionally, Jason is passionate about his teaching. He likes being a Graphic Communication teacher because it allows him to work with different types of digital media such as digital photography, digital video, image editing, web design and animations. He loves seeing students using technology to be creative and advance their technical skills. He is always striving to motivate students to take pride in their work, challenging themselves and pushing the limits of their abilities. The “Mr. Jarrett, is this good enough?” is not something he ever wants to hear in his classroom. "Challenging ourselves mentally and physically is a great way to improve not only yourself but the people around you."
Jason’s career accolades are very impressive for a 30 year young professional. He has a Bachelors of Science in Technology Education from Millersville and a Masters of Science in Classroom Technology from Wilkes University. He is the TSA (Technology Student Association) advisor at his school, he is the TSA Region 3 Coordinator/Board of Directors member, the Jumpers/Sprinters coach for the High School Track team and last but not least an Eagle Scout!
Personally, Jay is passionate about his family and friends. At times he can be a complete loner, searching out solitude (his words not mine!) But he is happiest when he is around the people that he cares about. He loves spending time with his lovely wife Jenn and their dog Conrad. He is the oldest of three boys, Justin and Jonathan, with two wonderful parents, Craig and Nanette. Growing up his family was always outside which gave Jay his love for the outdoors. When not spending time with family and friends, Jay likes hunting, camping, biking, scuba diving, shooting at the range and working on home improvements. When he wants to be lazy, he spends hours reading books, watching movies and of course, plenty of video game playing!
Before turning 30 this past October he was able to experience many great new things. He met his wife Jenn while on a cruise in the Caribbean, hiked 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail, went scuba diving in Honduras and Jamaica and rode 250 miles to the New Jersey coast with his brother and father. In the last year he went whitewater rafting with a group of best friends, got married (who would have thought!), went on a Mediterranean cruise to Spain, France and Italy for his honeymoon and last but not least, just went skydiving with Jenn for his 30th birthday. He finished his 20’s with no regrets!
Influence 11/52Jason Jarrett
Jay standing out on Pole Steeple near the Appalachian trail. A cool fact: Pole Steeple's summit and the rest of the South Mountain were created during the collision of the last Pangaea as North America slammed into the continent of Africa. If that doesn't blow your mind I don't know what would!
Influence:
Jay is one of my best friends and is easily my best friend from college. And lucky for us, we stay in touch and see each other every few months. It’s a great friendship and one that I am lucky to have.
I met Jay my very first semester at Millersville. We had our Energy, Power and Transportation class together at a satellite campus in Lancaster (Osburn Hall at Millersville was under complete renovation my first year.) It was one of my first Tech. Ed classes that I had at Millersville so I was a bit nervous and excited all at the same time. Jay sat across the room from me and seemed to have a group of friends he was hanging out with. Let’s just say that Jay was, well, a bit “cocky” shall we say! He seemed like he knew everything - little did I know, his dad was a Tech Ed teacher, Jay was super involved in Tech Ed classes and organizations (TSA) growing up. So, umm, yeah, he did kind of know everything! He had connections at Millersville and he was a smart kid with plenty to offer. So I was a little put-off by Jay at first. But we slowly started to talk, worked together on some things in class and before you knew it, we were inseparable. After that class, we had nearly every class together for next 3 years. We tried scheduling our classes together and planning out our semesters so we could either be lab partners or at the very least able to hang out as much as possible during class.
I loved being around Jay in most of my classes - he is smarter than me. Who doesn’t like being around people who are smarter than them?! I often leaned on him during our Graphics classes because he was a whiz. I had very little training from high school in that area, where Jay was an award winning high school talent in Graphics. Needless to say, I sat next to him whenever I could! I learned a ton from Jay. He has an eye for graphics that I don’t. So being as I like to learn new things and learn from people who are good at what they do, it was only natural for me to soak up Jay’s skills.
We also liked being around each other outside of class. We would often get together to bitch about professors, dumb kids in class, etc. We had a great clique of four friends that all got along together so well. Myself, Jay, Vanessa and Dave were usually always together. Between class, during and outside we really enjoyed being with each other. Each of us had our own strengths and weaknesses in Tech. Ed. that we all helped each other with. Our personalities also mixed well - we helped each other through the stressful and sometimes difficult times of college. Every Wednesday night we had our weekly happy hour meeting. The local dive bar served up free food every Wednesday along with cheap (at the time it felt expensive) beer. We went religiously and it was always something we looked forward to during class. We would be on hour four of a lab, headaches roaring and all look at each other and say what we thought was for dinner. Meatballs, hot ham, hot roast beef, sloppy joes and of course, french fries. God I loved Wednesday nights!
Jay and I are very alike. We enjoy teaching and being involved with our kids in clubs. We love being outdoors and hanging out together. We plan out dates/weekends every year to get together. We have our annual Tech. Ed. conference that is only 20 minutes from his house. So I spend a few nights there hanging out with him. We also have our TSA state conference in April that we get to see each other for a few days to hang out. We used to go to Dewey Beach every summer (7 years+ I believe) to hang out with another Millersville grad. That was easily the highlight of my summer. Right after college was done we would head down, or once we got done teaching in June, that first week off we would shoot right down. We would be on the beach drinking by 10am some years! Nothing like it! But life has caught up with me and family time has taken over in place of warm sand and late nights! We also try to hang out at a few other times throughout the year so we don’t go too long without seeing each other. It’s a great friendship that I cherish. He has meant a great deal to me and my career. He is someone who I always look up to. He is a perfectionist when it comes to teaching and I really admire that. Without Jay I can easily say that I would not be as creative and hard working in teaching. He always raises the bar and I strive to stay on his tail! Thanks for being a great colleague and an even better friend - love ya!