When Jasmine Sheppard was so tragically taken from the UALR community July 10, professors and students alike mourned her loss and that of her bright future.

Sheppard was a junior Mass Communications major and had been awarded the Arkansas Broadcasters Association Patricia Wilcox Scholarship, a full scholarship for the 2010/2011 school year.

Associate Professor Jeanne Rollberg says she was fortunate to teach Sheppard. “It was a great pleasure to teach Jasmine Sheppard,” she says. “She was a dedicated student, a gentle human being, and someone who definitely had a very bright future.”

Rollberg noted that Sheppard was thoughtful and respectful, engaged in her learning, and was also very conscientious — a wonderful academic citizen. “She was a good role model for other students, and seemed to have a passion for making a contribution and doing the right thing, without exception,” says Rollberg. “She also had a delightful sense of humor and knew how to have fun. Those of us who were lucky enough to work with Jasmine will miss her gentle spirituality, her intelligence, her wit, and her desire to give back and to make the world a better place. She was a beauty in every sense of that word, and her loss is tragic for all who knew her.”

Amy Barnes, Assistant Professor in the School of Mass Communications, also had taught Sheppard. “I had Jasmine for one course and was delightfully surprised with her efforts. I say surprised because for the first couple of classes she was quiet, almost retreating. But then she delivered her first assignment, and I knew immediately I had a light ready to shine.”

Watch School of Mass Communications Director Jamie Byrne remember Sheppard in this clip from KTHV:
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