Local woman named distinguished MCCC alumni

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

By BRIAN BINGAMAN

Montgomery County Community College's roster of distinguished alumni keeps growing.

Salford Township resident Karen Jett is one of the four recent inductees into the Montgomery County Community College Alumni Hall of Fame.

She joins the 2009 hall of fame class along with Lillian Caperila, the national manager of professional education at Premier Dental Products in Plymouth Meeting; former police officer and one-time professional boxer Frank "Mr. Norristown" Ciaccio; retired Coca-Cola Bottling Company executive John Kolb Jr.; and Warrington Township's director of fire inspectors and emergency services Richard Lesniak.

Jett wears many hats — author, speaker, Villanova adjunct professor, and part-time controller for the Center for Relationships and Families.

In nominating Jett for the hall of fame, Maryann Volk, a client of the Center for Relationships and Families said of Jett: "While Karen is our controller, she is so much more. She serves as a mentor, advisor, one who supports, encourages and promotes growth for all employees."

Jett also has her own company, Jett Excellence, that helps business executives identify what their values are and implement them into their business practices.

The importance of articulating the values of your business is the theme of Jett's book, "Grow Your People, Grow Your Business." The book grew from an 18-hour management training class that she designed.

What makes the business book stands out is that it's ripe with farming and agricultural metaphors. That's because her husband, Thad, is a farmer, and the couple operates an organic produce stand.

"We'd have these conversations where he was talking about his stuff and I was talking about my stuff, and I saw a parallel," Jett said.

MCCC director of communications, Alana Mauger, said that each hall of fame inductee got a "this is your life" video vignette at the induction reception Oct. 2. Jett's clip included footage of the Jett's Produce stand.

"It's always something that's very inspiring. We invite our student leaders to attend (the reception)," Mauger said.

When Jett graduated high school at the dawn of the '80s, she knew she had scholastic aptitude, but didn't want her college experience to turn into an extended version of high school.

"I was an overachiever in high school — National Honor Society, all that good stuff. After awhile school was less about learning than it was about following the rules. I was good at math and definitely knew what to major in. I wasn't ready to be put in a dorm."

So Jett chose to enter the working world and take classes at MCCC in the evening from 1982 to 1986.

"It was all adults (in my classes). I was the youngest person in my class," she said.

After earning her associate's degree in accounting, Jett went on to Temple University to complete a bachelor's program, graduating summa cum laude.

Jett is a member of the Institute of Management Accountants, past president of the North Penn chapter of the IMA, and a member of the National Speakers Association.

There are a total of 46 inductees in the college's alumni hall of fame, which began in 2002.

ON THE NET

www.jettexcellence.com

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