JOHN DAY Keynote speaker Jessica Horrell recalled the challenges she faced as she worked to gain her pharmacy degree, addressing those attending the June 5 Grant Union Junior-Senior High School academic awards program.

The 1996 Grant Union grad grew up in Canyon City where her mother Carla Zinn still lives. Her father is the late Tillman Zinn.

She noted that in high school she wasnt at the top of her class and had to work hard to get a good grade.

During her years of study at Oregon State University in Corvallis, she could frequently be found in the south wing of the library a five-flight stair climb with her nose in a textbook.

One day, after receiving a failing grade on a physics exam, her professor suggested she refer to her high school algebra book even though shed already taken higher math classes, such as calculus.

This brought back memories of algebra class with Grant Union teacher Matt Jones, and she added that high school textbook to her stack in the library.

She encouraged the students to not give up in their educational pursuits.

When you fail not if you fail but when you fail, get up brush yourself off and get back at it, she said.

Horrell and her husband Shawn live in Burns where she works as a pharmacist at Rite-Aid. They have two children, Caitlyn, 5, and Gaven, 3.