S1, E51: Women Helping Women/ SLCC - Sherry Jensen

What propels someone to dedicate their life to empowering others? Sherry Jensen, associate professor of economics at Salt Lake Community College, shares her compelling story of community service and personal growth. From her roots in Kentucky to her life in Utah, Sherry's experiences have fueled a passion for supporting vulnerable women through the Women Helping Women initiative. Discover the organization's transformative efforts, including providing professional attire and personal care items, and learn about the upcoming fundraising event in collaboration with Elase Med Spas. 

Dive into the world of economics with Sherry, an applied microeconomist who has recently embraced macroeconomics with vigor. She shares fascinating insights on teaching economics, especially during times of inflation and unemployment, and how these topics resonate deeply with students today. Her journey, which includes an internship at the Treasury during significant economic shifts, offers valuable lessons on the real-world impact of economic education. Alongside her husband, Sherry reflects on their academic careers and their transition to Utah, bringing a personal touch to the conversation.

Adjusting to life in Utah presents its own set of challenges and rewards, from coping with high elevation and low humidity to engaging with the local culture. Sherry opens up about these transitions and her involvement with the Junior League of Salt Lake City. Learn about the inspiring work of Women Helping Women and the essential role of community support in empowering women. Whether it's through donating clothes or participating in events, find out how you can make a meaningful difference in the lives of women striving for stability and independence. Join us for an episode rich in education, personal stories, and community impact.

Please be sure to like, review, follow, subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and family! See you next time 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Empowering Women Through Community Support
• 13:35 Teaching Economics
• 26:01 Adapting to Life in Utah
• 29:54 Supporting Women Through Women Helping Women
• 34:28 Supporting Women Through Community Services
• 39:14 Empowering Women Through Community Support
• 50:45 Donating Clothes to Support Women

Transcript

Sherry Jensen: 0:10

So I grew up in the state of Kentucky. I'm an associate professor of economics at Salt Lake Community College. I decided to talk about the Junior League and to talk about women helping women. I had been a member of the Junior League in Florida before I came to Salt Lake. I definitely wanted to connect with the community.

Sherry Jensen: 0:28

A project that I've become heavily involved with, that I'm here to talk about today is called Women Helping Women and so offering them that professional, attire support through personal care items, through different accessories, like really kind of the full package that women might need. We were really excited when Alays reached out to us to be one of the recipients of their Pink Event fundraiser and I was really excited to say to them like hey, I know your business, I've really enjoyed being one of the recipients of their Pink Event fundraiser. And I was really excited to say to them like hey, I know your business, I've really enjoyed being one of your clients. And now it's kind of exciting to me that there's this connection and that you want to support our Women Helping Women project. What is up?

Erik Nilsson: 1:07

everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Small Lake City Podcast. I'm your host, eric Nilsen, and today's guest is a woman by the name of Sherry Jensen. Now, while Sherry is a professor at the Salt Lake Community College teaching economics, and has her PhD in economics from Clemson University and has decided to pursue higher education as her career, she is also involved in a nonprofit in Salt Lake under the Junior League called Women Helping Women, and we're going to talk a lot about the nonprofit itself, the work that she does, especially in empowering women and helping some of the most vulnerable populations of women finding their feet in their traction, feeling support along the way. Also want to talk about an event coming up that you can help support her organization. I also want to talk about an event coming up that you can help support her organization through Alay Smed Spas at their September 18th Pink event, which you can find out more at alayscom or 801-49-LASER for more information. But let's hear from Sherry. Enjoy, it is funny.

Erik Nilsson: 2:11

I do feel weird. So I was in this room this morning stretching like stretching after a workout. Now I'm back, but I'm glad that we had some space to use because I was literally all set up in another room, one of the managers comes in. She's like this can't happen today. I was like, well, where can I go? This is my last choice.

Erik Nilsson: 2:36

She's like, well, I have an to talk today because, as I was kind of talking to you about, excuse me, by the time this airs, the episode that would have aired the week before is with Preston Cochran, who talks we talked a lot about the homeless population, what the other side initiatives are doing, what he's doing, kind of a little bit more of kind of how the city is letting us down in those ways, which dovetails well with a lot of the work that you're doing with Women, helping Women, and with Junior League and partnering with LACE for the event that they have that will help support I mean a lot of the causes that you care so much about. But yeah, I'm excited and especially having someone not from here and kind of how they got about coming here, kind of want to start about that. But yeah, I mean not from your born and raised in Kentucky. I mean, what was that like life? What was your family dynamics like? How did that set the stage for everything you've gone on to be until now?

Sherry Jensen: 3:20

Sure. So you'll probably hear it in my voice that I'm not from here. Since moving to Utah, I've never before had so many people ask me where my accent is from, because I primarily lived in the southeastern United States before coming out here to Salt Lake. So I grew up in the state of Kentucky. I went to college in Kentucky. I've realized that a lot of people that are native to the West have never been to Kentucky.

Erik Nilsson: 3:47

I've been once.

Sherry Jensen: 3:48

All right, then you're amongst maybe the few that have ventured to my home state. So I grew up in the western part of Kentucky. I think a lot of times if people have some knowledge of Kentucky they think of eastern Kentucky and Appalachia and kind of the more hills and mountainous part of Kentucky. But I grew up in the western part of the state, actually very close to the Kentucky-Tennessee border, so in a rural area in a town of about 30,000 people, so much smaller here than being in Salt Lake, and so, yeah, all of my family still lives in Kentucky, so I go back several times a year. A lot of my friends still live in the state. So I think it's another state, kind of like Utah, where if people really enjoy it they stay.

Erik Nilsson: 4:34

Yeah, because it is like and that's one thing I've learned a lot about Kentucky because, like one of my really good friends, he works for a company that does kind of like minor, like kind of miniature camping glamping, and so they have one in Escalante, they're putting one in Joshua Tree and they're putting one in the Smoky Mountains, and so it's like I knew of the Smoky Mountains and National Park.

Erik Nilsson: 4:54

But then the more he talked I was like oh wait, like there's like there is so much more outside. Because whenever I think of anywhere I mean let's call it like east of Wyoming, I usually like, yeah, there's not, like we're the outdoors part of the country, they're not. And so it's fun to know that there's so many great places to be around there. It's so beautiful. But then also I around there, it's so beautiful, but then also, uh, I mean it's, it's still a great place. The only that the. So the reason I did go was to go to the kentucky derby once upon a time, which was, I mean, a blast. I probably wouldn't go again, but it was, it was fun to see, like, almost like kind of great like once in a lifetime.

Sherry Jensen: 5:29

See the kentucky kind of classic, iconic derby. Yeah, um, I have not been to the derby but but I have been to Churchill Downs Um, so I have been there to that location. There's also another smaller um track in Lexington, Kentucky, called Keeneland, Um, so they are kind of a a big part of the horse um culture of Kentucky Interesting.

Erik Nilsson: 5:49

Yeah, it's, it's not. I'm not a horse person and actually in fact I'm like pretty allergic to horses. So even when I'm there, I'm like sniffling my nose, being like all right, who are we betting on? What to do? How do I go get another mint julep? Sure, we'll figure it out. But so then you go up to college. I mean, stay in Kentucky studying economics which there's a trend of studying economics in your life. But I mean, what kind of drew you towards that path? I mean, from at that point, where did you see your life going? Or your professional career?

Sherry Jensen: 6:19

So I'll have to give a shout out to my alma mater, to Center College. It's there in the center of the state of Kentucky. It's a smaller, private liberal arts college that has a really rich history, and so that's where I went to college. A lot of people ask me well, how did you become an economics major? And I really kind of fell into it and then maybe later fell into education as well. So I went to college undecided about what I wanted to major in. I took an economics class my very first semester from a professor that was just really engaged and excited about it, and that's where I really discovered economics and went on to major in economics.

Erik Nilsson: 7:01

Yeah, I always love those. So I was someone who went into school thinking I knew exactly what I wanted to do, which was architecture, which is not anything about what I do today. And then it went on from like, oh, do I architecture? No, I don't really want to be an architect, I don't have enough jobs, not enough creativity went to civil engineering, pre-pharmacy. I don't actually want to do pharmacy, let's do business.

Erik Nilsson: 7:22

And it is funny to see how, I mean, you go to school, and especially something as interesting as economics, because it's as broad as you want it to be, it's as narrow as you want it to be. But I think the thing that's always the most interesting is the teachers that can kind of sell you on something Like there was a actually she just retired. There's the accounting professor at the? U named Marcy Butterfield, and I've never had, in hindsight, seeing so many of my friends be like I think I want to do accounting because I liked her class, she was nice and she made this interesting. And if you can do that with accounting and economics and get people in there, Now it sounds like you're insulting accounting and economics, but Economics?

Erik Nilsson: 7:57

no, I study economics still Accounting yes, I could never be an auditor, I could never be an accountant, but for all of my friends who are accountants and people who are accountants, thank you for doing the things that people don't want to do, which is usually just like basic math, over and over and over again. That's usually people's biggest fear. So you get this. I mean appreciation for economics. You study it in your home state, in central Kentucky. I mean, was the next step eventually, or like right as a sudden, to go do your master's, or did you take a break and be like maybe I do want to go back to school now?

Sherry Jensen: 8:32

So I didn't immediately go to graduate school. Like you mentioned, economics there are so many different directions that people take an economics major that when I graduated I did have this big question of you know, what do I want to do? What do I want my career to be? So I actually worked for two years After my undergraduate degree. I worked briefly in the banking industry. I also worked for Toyota. At the time there, um North American headquarters was located in Northern Kentucky. They since relocated, but at the time it was there in my home state, um. So I was two years out of undergrad and and kind of trying to find my place and what I wanted to do and decided hey, I think I want to go back to grad school. I want to pursue a you. Hey, I think I want to go back to grad school. I want to pursue a higher level of education. I ended up going to Clemson in South Carolina, so again in the southeast to pursue my PhD in economics.

Erik Nilsson: 9:29

It's cool because you have this experience in your undergrad of small liberal arts college and it's like all right, now we're gonna go to Clemson and just have these two very I would assume pretty different experiences. All very different experiences.

Sherry Jensen: 9:41

um, so I had never I'll admit I had never seen an entire football game until I went to Clemson. Uh, of course. Um, it's really big in terms of the culture there. As grad students, we we did get to enjoy the perk of getting student season tickets to the games. The kind of the joke was. So Clemson is very much a college town in the South and the population of Clemson would like more than triple on game day. So the stadium at the time, I think, if I remember correctly they said, held something like 86,000 people. The stadium at the time, I think, if I remember correctly they said, held something like 86,000 people. So on game day it was like every road into Clemson was a one-way road into Clemson and then at the end of the game everything became a one-way exit out of the city. So definitely a really different experience from my undergrad in terms of the size and the culture.

Sherry Jensen: 10:35

One of the other things that I remember is Clemson undergraduate students, which is, of course, very different than going to grad school. They were always rated some of the happiest college students in the country by some of all of those different rankings, and I can certainly see why. You know, going to graduate school is not quite the same happy experiences as undergrad, but I did have a wonderful experience there. It is another area, as you were talking about, like enjoying nature. It's there in kind of northwest North Carolina, so almost sharing a border with Tennessee, with North Carolina. It was a mountainous area where, just like here, a lot of people enjoy hiking and kayaking. There's a lot of lakes in that area and so I had a really great experience there.

Sherry Jensen: 11:19

I also went into grad school again not knowing where I would take a PhD in economics. There's lots of different opportunities. Of course. I'm in education now and that's where I've landed, but a lot of people with PhDs in economics go on to work as consultants for the government and just lots of different capacities that maybe most people wouldn't typically think of.

Erik Nilsson: 11:41

Yeah, very, very different experience Because, like I, there's always part of me that is curious, like, oh, like, if I did want to teach, because I do enjoy like the process of teaching, but I don't know if I could like teach at a higher education, like a higher education institution, but it's interesting to see, like where you learn for so long and then you go on to keep teaching. That I mean, was there a certain moment during your master's and PhD where you're like, yeah, I think I do want to teach, or was it just kind of this, I mean growing flame during the entire experience?

Sherry Jensen: 12:13

So I definitely had that moment when I started grad school one of the great things about going there at Clemson in economics, they offered fellowships and as part of our fellowships in terms of that financial support that we got to go to graduate school. Well, they used us. We were initially research assistants and then some of us went on to be teaching assistants, and so I really had my first teaching experiences there when I was in grad school. It was a very different experience than my undergrad.

Sherry Jensen: 12:43

Of course, clemson has some very large classes, right. You could probably parallel Clemson some to the University of Utah here, where students might have been in a really large lecture and then they were divided into smaller sections where they met with teaching assistants. And so my second year of grad school I became a teaching assistant and found out that it was something that I really enjoyed. Also say it's something that I found out that I was good at that, that students kind of enjoyed my presence in the classroom, and that's when I kind of stumbled upon. Well, maybe this is where I want to take my.

Sherry Jensen: 13:16

PhD in economics. So I started out as a teaching assistant and then in my third and fourth years of grad school I was independently teaching classes on my own, and so that's where I got the classroom experience and said, hey, I think I want to pursue having my career in higher education.

Erik Nilsson: 13:35

And when you were teaching, was there any sort of topic or criteria you liked to teach, or was it mostly just teaching in general?

Sherry Jensen: 13:45

It didn't matter what economic theme it was. So, to some extent, teaching in general, people always kind of ask oh, what's your favorite class to teach? And I think that for a lot of us it probably changes over time. In terms of microeconomics versus macroeconomics, I traditionally say that I'm more of a microeconomist, an applied microeconomist, econometrics was one of my fields in grad school as well, which is the application of statistics to economics.

Sherry Jensen: 14:13

But most recently, and here in Salt Lake, even though we haven't transitioned to that yet I teach at Salt Lake Community College. I have really enjoyed teaching macroeconomics, I think in part because we all know there's interesting things going on in macroeconomics right now and I think students especially maybe have a kind of renewed interest in that topic, like even even if they're not trying to study economics or be exposed to it. Everybody has heard now about topics like inflation or unemployment that we experienced during the pandemic, more interest in interest rates, and so right now I think it's really exciting to teach macroeconomics at the introductory level because people really see how that's impacting their lives right now.

Erik Nilsson: 14:57

Yeah, yeah it's. I wish I could go back, because I remember when I so I studied finance at the? U and I think it was when I took economics, because I think I took micro first, then macro, like that's when. Because it's good to, I mean, everybody should fundamentally understand economics, because if you can understand economics, you understand how everything weaves its way together into this complex world that we live in, and how it all comes together.

Sherry Jensen: 15:20

I love the things you're saying. It's really making me want to go into teacher mode and say that we talk about how economics is the study of how people make choices in the face of scarcity and how those choices impact people, and I really want my students to see exactly what you've described. That like hey, it's not just about what's in this textbook, right Like? Economics impacts all of us, and even if you're not going to go on to be a business major or an economist like you, can take this information with you?

Erik Nilsson: 15:47

Yes, it will, whether you're applying for a mortgage.

Sherry Jensen: 15:48

So I'll go back out of teacher mode now.

Erik Nilsson: 15:51

Let's just screw the podcast.

Erik Nilsson: 15:59

Let let's just screw the podcast. Let's just talk about economics for a while. That'll be fine. There's a couple things I need to get off my chest, but I mean I think it's such an interesting topic because I remember when I was in let's see what year would I've actually started finance. That would have been, I think, 2013, to date myself, but when I did, I mean it was I mean 2013, and it was because, as I told you, I went to go on to intern at the Treasury, which when I was there, I mean like TARP and SIGTARP and like Troubled Asset Relief Program to help people essentially afford houses and grow our economy back.

Erik Nilsson: 16:25

Like were the topics and, unfortunately, because it was such, I mean a boring experience and I really didn't do anything, like I'd be sitting in these meetings with important people like how do we incentivize Americans to buy houses, like and again a lot of these economic conversations, but talking about the levers that we can pull to do it, and I'm like head bobbing because I'm just like had nothing to do, and they pulled me into a meeting as I was about to fall asleep at my desk. And now I get to fall asleep at this desk. But in hindsight I've been like, yeah, if I could go back and be a fly on the wall, like absolutely, and to be able to study something like that in this economy. I mean I would love to be able to. We're trying to slow down and what we're trying to speed up and kind of find ourselves in this once again a once in a million year phenomena that we once again find ourselves as as a millennial, but I mean it's usually every five years there's something that's threatening our existence. But uh, but yeah, I mean I always wish I could have gone back and heard my teachers say, like there's interesting things going on.

Erik Nilsson: 17:37

Let's talk about this, because there's I mean there's our classes that you can have an understanding what's going on in the moment. And I mean I'd hope in most classes there is a way that you can apply it. But I mean, with economics, literally all you have to do is like open up a newspaper, random page, scroll up and down, put your finger on a story. Be now, how does this affect you and I at some way shape or form? Or how does this affect global markets? Be like, well, yeah, you know, if they're doing this and they probably have more money. If they have more money, then they have free income, and if they have actually more income, then they have more money to spend, which, like and you can kind of go down this like rabbit hole of anyway, I can talk, um.

Erik Nilsson: 18:21

So people may be wondering when we're going to stop talking about economics on this podcast. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, um, you get me on an intellectual train and I, yeah, don't stop. But so you're? You're a clemson, you decide to become a teacher. Well, you decide to become a professor. Sorry, a professor.

Sherry Jensen: 18:26

It deserves its own accreditation, it's I'm okay with it with the term teacher as well and.

Erik Nilsson: 18:32

But I mean, where did you start teaching from there? I mean kind of, how did you get this educational career off the ground?

Sherry Jensen: 18:38

Yeah. So I'll also say my husband is also in education, so he's a professor of mechanical engineering. So we were looking for a spot to both start our careers. At the time when we were on the job and thinking about where we wanted to live and you can laugh about this now, since we're here in Salt Lake we decided that we had a no winter rule, and so we were pretty much exclusively looking for places where we could live, where there would not be winter, um. So so we went further, south, um, and we started our academic careers in Florida Okay, yeah, um, at a public institution there, and, yeah, that's where we started our full-time positions.

Erik Nilsson: 19:21

And how was I mean, how was that transition going from? I mean, again you're getting experience at Clemson teaching being a teacher's aide, and I mean being at school is still like a teaching experience. But I mean, how was finally actually having like a full-time job where you have responsibilities and you're actually the one in charge of everything?

Sherry Jensen: 19:39

I mean was that a validating experience at all, so I think at that point right, it's actually pretty exciting to make that transition from grad school. I also will fully acknowledge, you know, I think there's a lot of luck at play in the academic job market, especially in that time it's super competitive. And so I felt really lucky to be where we were, that I had kind of landed in this career that I was targeting, in a location that we were targeting at the time. So it was pretty exciting. I will say it has been a number of years ago. Exciting, I will say you know it has been a number of years ago.

Sherry Jensen: 20:17

So back then I was, you know, closer in age to college students that I had in my classroom, but it's probably best described as exciting, right? I mean, hopefully everybody has that feeling at the start of a career and a period of transition.

Erik Nilsson: 20:29

Yeah, it's like I even remember my first day in Seattle Washington, sitting in like the lobby of Nordstrom's corporate headquarters and being like so this is it. Like we're gonna go do a job now, I'm gonna have responsibilities, we're gonna expect things of me and again a real paycheck the best part but it is. I mean, it's an excitement, right. I mean you've been spending so much time to get to this point and then to finally be at that point and I'm sure it's also a good experience to have that with your husband and being like, hey, we're both now teaching, we can actually talk about what we do. We are having similar experiences, cause I there's some of my friends who are married or in long-term relationships where they don't have very similar things Like, so what do you like when you get home and they say, how was work? It's just like, oh good, bad, like it's hard for people to relate, but I'm sure it was nice to have someone going through that experience as well that you guys can either commiserate or get excited about or bounce ideas?

Sherry Jensen: 21:23

Yeah, no, for sure, and sometimes it is commiserating, right. Or it's nice to have someone to kind of understand that process in your career and what you're going through, and then also having them also be able to really understand those, like those really happy moments and other things.

Erik Nilsson: 21:37

So yeah, and so you're in Florida, and at what point you're like uh, maybe Florida's not it anymore. Let's, let's remove all these dyes.

Sherry Jensen: 21:46

We were there for a number of years. Um, it is kind of that story that like, well, then we thought that's where we wanted to move, we thought we didn't want winter and then we decided we really kind of got tired of being hot all the time. It's kind of interesting, I discovered, when we left and we moved out here and you tell people where he came from and a lot of times people are like, oh, why would you ever leave? And I'm like, well, it's great, you know, it could be a good place to vacation. But we did.

Sherry Jensen: 22:14

We kind of got tired of the sameness. And it also reminds me maybe this will sound like a very academic comment I read a study that it can really impact your memory living somewhere where you don't have seasons and change, because often, like markers in your life, you might associate it with like oh, this happened to me in the spring, or this was something in a life event in a summer or fall, and that by having that kind of sameness it can actually change the way that people process memories. So don't ask me for the citation or whose study that was, but that idea has kind of stuck with me, that we kind of got tired of some of the sameness. My husband will also tell you he got really tired of the humidity. He was not originally from the southeast and and so part of it was that and and we were also just ready for for changes in other parts of our lives and in terms of again thinking about our jobs and and other things that were like hey, it's time for a change.

Erik Nilsson: 23:10

Yeah, and I mean so you revisit the seasons, like okay, maybe we do want winter. Your husband's like, listen, I like to drink my water, I don't like to breathe it, let's go somewhere else. I mean, what was on the chopping block, what was on the first I mean stack ranked on that list of places you saw yourselves going?

Sherry Jensen: 23:28

So we were pretty selective. One of the things that's really hard. So we talked about some of the benefits of two people having a career within the same industry, but then it can become really hard when you both want to relocate and stay.

Erik Nilsson: 23:42

Do you guys need two professors doing these two specific things?

Sherry Jensen: 23:44

Yes, exactly, it's this really huge challenge in academia to kind of successfully make that move and both stay within academia and so kind of. The West was on our short list, so definitely this region of the United States, and we kind of started our academic job searches. Salt Lake City is kind of an exciting location for that because we have several universities all relatively close together here with the? U, with UVU, with Weber State, close together here with, you know, with the? U, with UVU, with Weber State, with Salt Lake Community College, and so the stars aligned that we could both come here and continue to work in higher education. But Salt Lake City was definitely one of our kind of target areas in terms of moving to this region of the country. So we got a little lucky.

Erik Nilsson: 24:34

Hey, we'll take a little bit of luck.

Sherry Jensen: 24:36

I believe that, and I feel like it's important for me, when I, when I talk about academic careers, to sometimes talk about that element of luck, because I know a lot of people find the market, you know, really challenging and maybe for a lot of careers. Right, um, people, people recognize that, hey, there was some luck involved. Right, there was training and there was preparation.

Erik Nilsson: 24:59

Um, but maybe there was also a little bit of luck too.

Erik Nilsson: 25:01

Hey, I'm a believer that luck comes to those that work hard, and it's those moments it's like, oh, it was easy to say, oh, it was lucky, but at the same time you still had to prove that you were the good candidate for the job.

Erik Nilsson: 25:09

You still had to do, and someone always told me I can put you on a stage, but it's up to you to dance. And so I mean, even if it was a little bit of luck, it usually stems from a lot of hard work or doing the job right that you should have. So I'm glad you guys could make it work, because I can't imagine like going through this job prospect oh I got an offer here, like I didn't, and or I can't go there because this is like I see how this misalignment of of wanting to both be somewhere in academia and pursue your careers but also be like we're very limited on places this could actually work, and we know that you now teach full-time at Salt Lake Community College. Is he as well at Salt Lake Community College or is he at another one of our?

Sherry Jensen: 25:46

various. He's at another institution, so I am an associate professor of economics at Salt Lake Community College and my husband's a professor of mechanical engineering down at Utah Valley University, nice.

Erik Nilsson: 25:58

Two great schools, two great programs. I mean, how has that transition been to come to? I mean from going from Kentucky and the Southeast and coming here? I mean how was that cultural acclimation or just getting used to Utah in general?

Sherry Jensen: 26:13

Yeah, there are. There was a lot of adjustment. I can also throw into the mix that I moved here in January of 2020. Perfect timing, and so there was that added into it as well.

Sherry Jensen: 26:25

I think, you know, probably part of the transition was eased by the fact that I was, you know, continuing in higher education, so I knew my job. I knew my job well. Right. That part of my life, um, was really established and and stable, um, oh, here's a here's another huge contrast for you. So, um, living at a higher elevation was a big change, um, so, where we lived in Florida, we were at an elevation of 11. Um, so we were there, yeah, at 11. Um, and so that was kind of a transition.

Sherry Jensen: 26:56

Also, the first summer that we were here, you know, you can like look at your weather app and see the temperature and you can see the humidity, and I really did not know that humidity could be in single digits. I just didn't Somehow. That was outside of my scope of understanding, understanding. So that's definitely been a big transition. I've never lived somewhere where I've experienced snow to this extent. Now, admittedly, right, we live here in the Valley, so we don't get a lot of snow at our house but going up into the canyons and seeing the snow. So I feel like now I'm talking a lot about weather, but I also said we had that weather rule that led us to Florida and then we left.

Sherry Jensen: 27:43

So yeah, so the kind of that like physical nature of it. I think there is an adjustment to moving here, especially if you've been in other parts of the country with higher humidity.

Erik Nilsson: 27:50

Yeah, I mean, I'm the same way. So when I moved back from Seattle, I remember that the first like probably almost six months, I needed to have my Carmex in my pocket. I needed to have like moisturizer in my bag wherever I was, cause I just felt like this reptile, cause I was so used to I mean, and even Seattle is not as nearly as humid as Florida, but you just feel like your skin's dried out. And I remember I cause I enjoy running, and so I go out on a run and be like, how is this so hard right now? Because I lived, I mean, probably a little higher in elevation, maybe like 50 or 60.

Erik Nilsson: 28:23

And I just like never really realized a lot of those impacts of salt lake until I came back and again I was like, oh, it's dry, it's this high elevation. Okay, that is right, because I always hear people coming here like, oh, they got elevation sickness or they can't deal with it. Or someone will go out and be like, oh, I know how to drink. And you're like, oh, by the way, we're 5,000 feet higher than you thought you were and it is something that messes with you, especially the beginning, but thankfully the body adapts well and gets there and I'm sure culturally it was a shock as well, going from I mean the south to to here and kind of that. I mean the cultural phenomena that is salt lake city, utah and and and I don't want to say complications, but it's a very unique place yeah, for sure, and yeah, some of it.

Sherry Jensen: 29:09

I don't think I fully anticipated um, but I definitely feel like I've. I've learned a lot about salt lake and learned a lot about utah and about the five years that I've been here.

Erik Nilsson: 29:19

Cool. So obviously very involved in other parts around Salt Lake, main of which and a lot of the reason we're talking today is with your work with Women Helping Women in the Junior League of Salt Lake. Maybe take a second and introduce the Junior League and Utah Helping Women and what they do and their goals overall in the community.

Sherry Jensen: 29:39

Yeah, so I'm really excited to be here today.

Sherry Jensen: 29:42

It was fun talking about economics but I'm excited to talk about the Junior League and to talk about women helping women. So maybe I'll start with talking about the Junior League as a whole a little bit. So the Junior League is an international organization. It's primarily based here in the United States but we do have chapters, I think, in Canada and Mexico, making us an international organization. And it's really. It's a charitable organization focused on women, focused on developing women's leadership skills, mainly to make a positive impact in their communities. And so the Junior League has chapters all throughout the country in different cities.

Sherry Jensen: 30:24

And so, kind of talking about my transition here to Salt Lake, I had been a member of the Junior League in Florida before I came to Salt Lake. So I was there a member of the Junior League of South Brevard and I knew when I was moving here and when I was coming to Salt Lake that I definitely wanted to connect with the community again and a really kind of easy way for me to do that was to continue my membership through the Junior League. So that's what it's about on the whole, like really promoting women, developing women, women's leadership skills. But every junior league has what they might call kind of their signature projects and their community, and here in Salt Lake City. So the Junior League of Salt Lake City has been around since 1931. Oh, wow.

Sherry Jensen: 31:11

So it really has kind of a long, rich history here in Salt Lake and the project that I've become heavily involved with that I'm here to talk about today is called Women Helping Women, and that specific project has existed since the mid-90s. So even going back that far right, we've got kind of decades that this has been a running project here in Salt Lake City through the Junior League. I'm kind of always surprised, as I've been here for about five years now and kind of meeting other women out in the community, lots of people that like know someone that's in the Junior League or was once in the Junior League. So it's kind of exciting that there's a rich history here.

Erik Nilsson: 31:54

Yeah, and what is your role with?

Sherry Jensen: 32:05

the Junior League. What are you in charge of? And I mean, how many people usually get involved around the Salt Lake area with Junior League in general? Sustainers? So those were women that earlier might have been what we consider kind of our really active members, and then they can enter kind of sustainer status, maybe when they enter a different phase in their life. So they're still involved and connected with the league, but maybe not those members that are kind of heavily organizing and running our projects. So currently, yeah, here we're at more than 200 women that have some association with us. So as an active member, that's someone that's kind of really committed to attending our general membership meetings and being heavily involved with our volunteer projects.

Sherry Jensen: 32:53

So I've taken on a leadership role this year in our league. I am the co-director, so I have a partner with me in this project for Women Helping Women. Like I said, it's been around since the mid-90s so there have been dozens or hundreds of volunteers that have kind of shepherded this project throughout the decades. And I should probably tell you what the project is. So the Women Helping Women, it's a boutique, so it's housed in our building. We have a physical location down here in Salt Lake City and this boutique is essentially like a thrift store, except women are referred to shop with us for free from different social agencies within our community. So it's all about supporting women that are looking to really make positive changes in their life, make gains towards independence and self-sufficiency, but maybe need some help getting there, and so we're really focused on supporting them by providing professional attire. So there's this idea that they're really looking to make this transition to supporting themselves in the workforce and so offering them that professional attire, support through personal care items, through different accessories, like really kind of the full package that women might need when they're making that type of transition. I really do like seeing for our clients that kind of confidence change that might help empower them to make other changes in their lives.

Sherry Jensen: 34:29

So there's probably some people out there that are saying, like, well, who are these women? Where do they come from? So all of our clients are referred to us from different social agencies here within Salt Lake City. So maybe there's somebody out there listening to the podcast and you're like I work with some women that I think would benefit from this service. We're always taking on new referring partners so we can reach even more women within our community.

Sherry Jensen: 34:52

But to give you an idea, um, they might be women that are referred to us from the department of workforce services, right, because they um have met with them. They might be women that are currently trying to transition out of the unhoused population here in Salt Lake City. They might be women that are looking to make a change because they are exiting addiction. Or they could be women that were formerly incarcerated. They could be students that are here within our community that need extra levels of support in terms of their basic needs.

Sherry Jensen: 35:31

We have so many different referring partners. They could be women that are referred to us from a domestic violence shelter. They could come to us from Volunteers of America, from just lots of different places. And so one thing that's really meaningful for me and my involvement, not just through the Junior League but through Women Helping Women, is really meeting all different types of women in our community. We also serve women of all different ages, so 18 and up, and I can just kind of say we've had clients from every decade of life but just lots of different women throughout our community that are all in different places in their lives that need this extra level of support.

Erik Nilsson: 36:14

Yeah, and I think that's such an important step that I think a lot of people forget about in the process and this is something that I talked to Preston, who works at the other side, about is we have this belief in Western culture, american culture, where if there's an issue or a problem, something you need to do, it's like okay, here's money, just take money, that'll probably solve it right. And it's like yes, but no, but yes but ultimately no. And especially with women helping women, the whole point is to be like hey, I'm here to help you, I want to support you and Preston as well. I mean like other side, it's people who are coming out of the program, who are teaching people coming in and saying, oh, you don't think you can do this, neither did I. I've done this. I can show you how to do this and give you hope in it.

Erik Nilsson: 36:59

Because, again, if it's the same social worker that's trying to help them doing everything, or the same family, or no face, and they're just being told what to do via, I mean, text, email, phone calls, whatever, like that doesn't really work as well. But you have someone who's there to help you there, to support you there, to raise you up there to give you the leadership, coaching and do it. That coaching and do it. That's a whole different story than here's a hundred dollar gift card to old Navy like go have fun. Um, and so I love that. That's been something that you've gotten involved with so much and being able to make that that lasting impact Cause I mean, those people will never forget it They'll. It's the first step in the rest of their life that they're taking in their own hands to make a meaningful difference in their lives. And, like there's, I can't think of a better cause. Yeah.

Sherry Jensen: 37:51

I think that's a big part of it for me. So I'm the co-director, but we also have another team of women that's on, if you will, our Women Helping Women Committee. So we have kind of this regular group of about 10 women that work to staff our boutique. We're open on Thursday nights and also on Saturday mornings. It's this kind of shopping opportunity for our clients and sometimes I think we see so many, so many problems that seem insurmountable, right, how can we make a difference? But one of the great things that I've really enjoyed with Women Helping Women is is seeing that person that I'm helping right, that kind of direct interaction.

Sherry Jensen: 38:31

You know some of the comments that you were making earlier. It's like, well, yes, we are providing them with resources in terms of clothing and toiletries and other things, but one of the other things that we're really striving to do at our boutique is to also give these women a really positive experience. Our boutique is very much set up like a store. We want to have a positive environment. We, um, you know, want it to feel like a special experience to come and for them to engage in an activity where they see that they're valued right, that we're there to, to help them, to provide customer service to them, um to give them that, that type of experience, that that makes them also feel like, like they're valued.

Erik Nilsson: 39:14

Yeah, and it's.

Erik Nilsson: 39:15

I mean especially people coming again out of the different types of backgrounds that they could be coming from, which a lot of which is, I mean, being ignored by a lot of people feeling like you are a second-class citizen.

Erik Nilsson: 39:26

I mean having to face all the adversity that they have, especially if they've been living homeless for a period of time, and being able to say, hey, here's a great experience, we're here to help you. It's uplifting Because again you'd be like, oh, there's the DI, goodwill, whatever, go sort through the bin, find whatever you want. But to make them feel like it is match the experience that they want to have for the rest of their lives and feel like they are seen, heard, rewarded and understood. I mean it's treating someone like a human and to go from almost like an inhuman experience to start to go towards that. I mean that lightens up faces and makes people motivated to make those changes. Otherwise they kind of still feel trapped in that life. And, yeah, it's so awesome that you've been able to make that help, make that change in people's lives, but that there's so many other people in our community that are supporting that as well.

Sherry Jensen: 40:17

Yes, Um, and, and of course, we couldn't operate without community um support. Um, we spent a lot of time talking about economics, right? Um? So you won't be surprised that I want to share some data. Um, so over this past um year, women helping women served about 450 women within our community, and so I find that number really satisfying, that those were women that you know visited our boutique at least once.

Sherry Jensen: 40:51

Once they are referred to us from another social agency that has screened them for need and for those goals that they have and those changes that they want to make, once they're referred to us, they can shop with us for up to a year, so it's not just a one-time experience, I'm sure, as we're all thinking about different clothing needs and things and, as we also talked about weather, we've got seasons here in Salt Lake, right.

Sherry Jensen: 41:16

You have kind of different seasons of need and items that you need to be seasonally appropriate, and so once they're referred to shop with us, they have up to a year to come back and visit our boutique Really as many times as they need to. We do have the kind of guidelines to the allotment of different items that they can get from the boutique. It generalizes to about like eight full, complete outfits, as you're thinking about a top and bottom or a dress and a jacket, shoes, accessories, all of those other kind of basic needs, and so it's really exciting to me that we can kind of offer them this package in terms of being something that is really kind of life-changing and it not just being a one-time experience that they could come back over the course of that year.

Erik Nilsson: 42:11

Yeah, because I get four seasons. What they're wearing in summer is not going to be appropriate for winter as the snow starts falling. It might work with a couple outfits in Florida, but thankfully or unthankfully, we're not in Florida, so yeah. So there's the event coming up on the 18th of the lace, the pink event that they have every year. I mean it's also not only some of their best deals where you can get, I mean, 70% off. I mean a unit of Botox is much less than it would be any other time. So if you've been waiting or holding out or humming and hawing, then I mean now is the time, but also helps benefit a lot of our organizations and communities that are helping support people and especially women. So I'm glad that Women Helping Women can be someone that benefits from this as well. That's coming up and I mean make it a good cause to help people as well.

Sherry Jensen: 42:55

Yeah, we were really excited when Alays reached out to us to be one of the recipients of their Pink Event fundraiser.

Sherry Jensen: 43:03

I know your podcast focuses on a lot of small Lake City connections.

Sherry Jensen: 43:08

I've been an Alays customer there at their Sugar House location and then they reached out to the Junior League and I was really excited to say to them like hey, I know your business, I've really enjoyed being one of your clients and now it's kind of exciting to me that there's this connection and that you want to support our Women Helping Women project through the Junior League and so super exciting.

Sherry Jensen: 43:32

So coming up on the 18th they've also invited us as the Junior League to have some of our reps there at their location so we can really kind of connect with people about what we do and what we do at women helping women. Um, because, yeah, because dollars from their fundraiser are are going to help support women helping women here in Salt Lake city, um, and also um, women of the World, which is another local Salt Lake organization, and then some organizations and states in their other locations, and so, yeah, it just kind of came together again some small Lake City connections, if you will. But we're really honored that they've selected us to be one of the recipients of their support.

Erik Nilsson: 44:19

Yeah, I'm glad that they're. I mean choosing to support organizations that are, I mean, local and impact the community so tangibly and specifically. Because I mean sometimes you can be like, oh, we're raising money for someone so you're like, well, I don't know where this is actually going and it's such a broad organization it feels like it doesn't directly impact the community itself. But I mean hearing I mean you talk about Utah women helping women, and I mean the junior league, and knowing I mean what's tactfully going on and how it's helping people makes me feel a lot better about it. And I know it's an event that you will need an appointment beforehand. So if it's something people are interested in, make sure to go check out LAistcom, find the right location and make sure to sign up ahead of time because that will fill up.

Sherry Jensen: 44:58

Yeah, I can imagine it's a very popular event. Yes, I know they said there's the opportunity. Specifically, money that they're raising through their raffles are going to these different organizations with that goal of empowering women, but also money that's coming, I believe, from some of their sales that day and they're offering great deals to people who are coming in to make those purchases. So I think it's exciting all the way around.

Erik Nilsson: 45:22

Yeah, yeah, no, I'm excited for it. Anything that can help make the community a better place and help people again, help the people that need the most, help get the help that they need I'll always be on board for that, especially in our community.

Sherry Jensen: 45:36

So I had mentioned in some of my data sharing that last year we served about 450 women. We distributed almost 11,000 items across those women. So I kind of talked about that kind of full package of support that we can offer everyone. So I do want to say a big thank you to everybody out in the Salt Lake community that donates to our organization, and one of the ways that people donate is by donating clothing items right, so pants and shirts and shoes and jewelry and just all of those things right that people would appreciate.

Sherry Jensen: 46:10

But we are really grateful for the kind of monetary donations that we get and through the Elase fundraiser, because there are products that we need to offer women that are brand new and not donated. And so we kind of operate in that two part, taking in, you know, physical donations but also being able to supply women with new socks and new underwear and new bras and things like a hairdryer and toiletries, and so it's kind of two-part in terms of the types of donations that we need to receive to keep serving our community. And for anybody out there that's listening to the podcast, the Junior League is always welcoming new members, whether you want to join us in general, or maybe this Women Helping Women project really interests you. We also use community volunteers in our boutique, so you don't have to be a member of the Junior League. You could just sign up to work one of those Thursday night or Saturday morning shifts with us and have that experience, even if you aren't officially a member of our organization.

Erik Nilsson: 47:14

Yeah, lots of ways to get involved, whether you want to donate clothing, make a financial donation or come spend some time. I mean, if people want to find out more information about how to get involved or donate clothes, what's the best place to find out more information or where to make those donations?

Sherry Jensen: 47:28

All right, yeah. For anybody who wants to learn more about the Junior League or about women helping women, you can check us out at our website, which is jlslcorg for the Junior League of Salt Lake City, or you can just Google our name. I'm sure you'll pretty easily find us. We do have some other projects. I'm here to talk about women helping women, but one of our other really big projects is called Care Fair. It takes place traditionally in the July of each year and it's a big free healthcare event for our community, with all types of different services, from dental services to medical to vaccinations, to vision screenings where we serve I think it's safe to say, thousands of people every year.

Erik Nilsson: 48:16

Wow, I mean that's huge, especially to give that level of care. Like my family that worked at the dentistry school up at the University of Utah and they would, I mean something similar. It'd be like a week where it's like all you have to do is show up and we will get you seen, and like to see how many people showed up, how many people needed, I mean, just basic dental care or some sort of help. I mean those events go so much further than you, than you think and especially to help support people and I mean help people be healthy and that's going to the doctor regularly.

Sherry Jensen: 48:45

So to have an opportunity where they can. That's amazing, and the medical community here in Salt Lake has been great about supporting that event because, of course, again, it's all through donated time and donated, donating, donated services definitely.

Erik Nilsson: 48:59

Yeah, thank you for helping out if there's other things you can do besides clothing, if you want to come help with the, uh, the care fair, and I mean it was in july, just barely, I would assume. But yeah, already planning for next year, I was gonna say that's, it's never actually over, it's just changes of planning when that happens. Um, sherry, if you could have someone on the small city podcast and hear more about what they're up to, who would you want to hear from?

Sherry Jensen: 49:23

So it's a really big question, um. But another organization that pops into mind um, that I know some things about, but not everything about um is an organization that's called rough Haven, um. So it's another nonprofit here in Salt Lake and what they're focused on is really helping people who want to stay reunited with their pets so their dogs or their cats or maybe even other types of pets that might be going through some struggle in their life but don't want to lose that connection with their animals. And I think rough Haven is doing some great work in our community and I'm kind of curious as to you know how they got started and just to hear more about their mission and what they're doing here. I think they have had some great success in what is kind of their early history.

Erik Nilsson: 50:17

Anybody trying to help people stay with their animals during a hard time, because I have two dogs and if I had to go through a life change, something happened, whatever that had to threaten to lose them, I would be looking for any option, opportunity, potential, shred of hope to keep them. So I think, yeah, I personally can say I'm also intrigued in their story and kind of what they're up to All right, maybe they'll make it onto your schedule.

Erik Nilsson: 50:41

Hey, we'll figure it out. It's up to me now. Well, sherry, thank you so much for coming on. I'm excited for the event coming up on the 18th, excited for all the work you're doing with Women, helping Women, and with the Junior League League. If you're looking for something to do, come get involved. Lots of ways you can do so. I know there's something sitting in your closet that you haven't worn in the past two or three years, that you can donate. So go, swing by, drop something off and make a difference.

Sherry Jensen: 51:05

Yeah, I'd be happy to help those items find a new home, and it's so I'm going to get in my last plug. It's so satisfying to help those items find a new home, with women who are really going to have their lives changed by that.

Erik Nilsson: 51:21

Yeah, so go from having it sit in your closet to be in someone's closet that will appreciate it, love it and give it another breath of life that it needs and deserves Awesome, well, thank you so much, sherry, excited for all the work that you're doing and excited to keep track of all it all and all the great things you're doing.

Sherry Jensen: 51:36

Yeah Well, thanks for this opportunity to chat with you Again. We're just really kind of so honored to have been selected as a partner and a recipient for funds from a Laces event, so I hope everybody will get out there and support it.

Erik Nilsson: 51:50

Absolutely, I'll see you all there.