If a picture says a thousand words, then this one has Webster’s beat.
The tradition of transitioning JAG National officers takes place each spring. This year, the National Career Development Conference was in Salt Lake City, Utah. Parliamentarian Dair Grubb stepped down and welcomed her successor, Jeremy Vargas, with an emotional embrace on stage.
“I felt gratitude and pride for those few seconds we had together,” said Grubb over a cellphone call from Eckard College in Tampa, Florida.
“I’m going to make her proud,” Vargas replied when told of her comment.
It was among the many cheers and tears on stage, but there’s more to it than that. While Dair’s journey was linear, winning the election during her senior year of high school, Jeremy’s path included losing in a runoff for JAG National President-Elect last year. He spent his 11th-grade year determined to give the national office another shot.
“I didn’t lose last year. I learned. And this year, I led with everything that lesson gave me,” Vargas said after the ceremony.
But there’s more to it than that.
With 80,000 JAG students nationwide, the odds of winning a national election are as long as the distance from North Carolina to California, two of the 32 states affiliated with JAG. Now factor in that the two live 7 miles apart and were classmates. What are those odds?
Yep. Same high school, James Lawson, in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Some students just have the ‘it’ factor,” says James Lawson High School JAG teacher Alisha Sheely. “Dair and Jeremy have the work ethic, grit, and intelligence. They were leaders in and out of the classroom.” Sheely credits JAG administrators Cathy Dennis and Jerry Jones for helping the duo submit applications and preparing them for what to expect during the election process.
JAG Tennessee President and CEO John Dwyer begins each quarterly board meeting with a mission moment to remind everyone why they serve. Vargas, who wants to be a lawyer, delivered his winning speech. Afterward, Dwyer presented Jeremy with a framed picture of the embrace. And Alisha. And mailed one to Dair. At the bottom of the frame, “Dream BIG” is inscribed.
