EPHRAIM — After calling the little town of Ephraim "home" for two years while going to school, about 570 Snow College students completed graduation exercises Saturday, then drove away.

Each of them was in the driver's seat, at least figuratively.

"Get into the driver's seat," commencement speaker Laurie A. Carter said, using the vehicle metaphor to deliver her message: Take control of your life and make it your own.

Carter is the vice president of the Juilliard School, the prestigious school for the arts with which Snow has several partnerships in music, dance and theater.

"To be the driver, you must be intentional in everything you do," Carter said. "Be careful not to confuse the desires of others with your own. Give every moment the attention it deserves. In short, you cannot serve two masters."

But notwithstanding purposeful direction, she said, one must be aware of the facts and realities of the outside world.

"Beware of target fixation, being so fixed on a particular goal or objective that one ignores other factors," Carter said. "Try not to devote so much time focusing on yourself (that you) neglect others. It is simply counterproductive to just plow ahead and ignore the word around you."

When the demands of life cause our focus to be temporarily diverted, "it is important not to get discouraged," she said. "There is always an opportunity to regroup and refocus."

Rather than viewing such changes as distractions, Carter said, graduates should "embrace every opportunity." She illustrated that by referencing her own experience developing the Snow-Juilliard partnership.

"When I first mentioned Snow College to my colleagues, they were confused as to why Juilliard should develop a partnership with a school in central Utah," Carter said. "None of us knew where it would lead or how important it would become to our development."

But Juilliard, with Carter leading, took the opportunity.

"We soon discovered that Ephraim is the anti-New York; it is a slow-paced, quiet town surrounded by quiet mountains. The music faculty fell in love with it. The drama students reported life-changing experiences," she said.

In Ephraim, Carter said, there was "a sense of renewal and of peace that one will never find in New York City."

Now, trips to Ephraim are coveted by Juilliard faculty and students, she said.

Snow bestowed Carter with an honorary doctorate of human letters.

The school also gave posthumous degrees to Shilo and Micah Edwards, two sisters and Snow College students who were killed in a traffic accident while traveling for a weekend trip to their West Bountiful home in February.

"The reaction from this student body was extraordinary," Snow President Scott L. Wyatt said while presenting the degrees.

Students raised thousands of dollars as a scholarship in their name so Shiloh's and Micah's names would be placed alongside those of other donors on a monument for the school's yet-to-be-built Heritage Plaza.

Their names will be written in stone forever, Wyatt said, "because their names were written in your hearts."

The sisters' parents, Dale and Lee Anne Edwards, were present to accept their daughters' diplomas.

E-mail: john@sanpetemessenger.com