'If I can, you can,' U.S. official informs graduates at CEU

Graduates of the College of Eastern Utah have benefited from technology, the support of parents and professors, and 200 years of American history, an assistant U.S. secretary of education said Saturday.

"The rest of the world is different....It is your responsibility to improve the world," Troy R. Justesen, assistant secretary of vocational and adult education, told participants in the college's 69th commencement.

CEU conferred 340 associate's degrees and certificates of completion during the Saturday exercises in Price, and another 94 degrees and certificates during a separate ceremony Friday on its San Juan campus in Blanding.

Justesen grew up in Orangeville, Emery County, and graduated from Emery High School and CEU. His bachelor's and master's degrees are from Utah State University. He still maintains his primary residence in Emery County.

He is the principal adviser to the secretary of education on high schools, career and technical education, adult education and community colleges. He was a former domestic policy adviser in the White House and a former deputy assistant secretary of education for special education and rehabilitation.

Justesen cited statistics regarding the underdeveloped world: Every four seconds, a child dies of hunger. Only one in six people have clean drinking water, and 3,900 children per day die from bad water.

In contrast, by 2013, America will have a super computer that surpasses the human brain in computing power, he predicted. By 2023, that computer will cost less than $1,000. By 2026, he said, graduates will own hand-held computers capable of storing all of the knowledge in the world.

"This gives you great responsibility," he said.

Justesen said he was a miner's son whose soul "is on the Manti mountains where I used to go fishing with my grandfather."

"My life is straight out of Forrest Gump," he said. "I have met and counseled with kings and presidents, generals and Nobel laureates. If I can, you can."

During the Price exercises, an honorary doctorate was conferred on Keith Stephan, director of the Utah Division of Facilities, Construction and Maintenance, who has played a key role in the physical expansion of the state's campuses.

During the earlier commencement on the San Juan campus, Dr. Orrenzo Snyder, a physician in Mesquite, Nev., an alumnus of the San Juan campus and a Navajo, challenged graduates to focus on four things:

"Know who you are; learn to do something well and then move with that knowledge; achieve for you and your family; and show gratitude by giving something back."

Honorary doctorates were conferred on Chris Webb, city manager of Blanding, and Pat Selzer, principal of Monument Valley High School.

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