BCC Commencement Address

President Jean Floten

June 13, 2008

Welcome dear graduates. And a heartfelt welcome to our distinguished guests, members of the board of trustees, faculty and staff, friends and loved ones. I am Jean Floten, president of Bellevue Community College.

As president, it is one of my proudest honors to convene the 41st commencement of Bellevue Community College. To the class of 2008, I extend joyful congratulations to you, your families, your instructors, and all of us. We are proud of your achievements. Tonight is dedicated to you. It is a time when your family, friends, loved ones and the whole college community take pride in your accomplishments.

Let’s pause just a moment to savor the total magnificence of this moment. This is the crowning glory of our year, a time that fills all of us with joy and pride.

After all of these years celebrating commencement, I am still moved by the ceremony and its significance. It is at once both solemn and joyous: solemn because it is the symbolic march of you, students, from our care into the world beyond; joyous because we release you, graduates, prepared to meet the next stage of your lives.

Signifying hope and human renewal, commencement is celebrated worldwide through a ritual that dates back to medieval times that marks the transference of knowledge and culture from our faculty to you our students. The gowns, caps and tassels are symbols that you have answered the call to undertake uncommon responsibilities, a group of whom much will be asked and who will accomplish a great deal.

Our purpose at the college has been to help you build a fulfilling life and successful livelihood on the foundation of your character and abilities. In so doing, we call on you to build a better society for all.

I would now like to introduce the individuals who are part of this evening’s ceremony.

First are those individuals who have been entrusted by the state of Washington to confer your degrees, the Board of Trustees of Community College District 8, Bellevue Community College:

• Chair Paul Chiles from Bellevue,

• Vice Chair Lee Kraft from Mercer Island,

• Steve Miller from Bellevue,

• Vicki Orrico from Bellevue, and

• Vijay Vashee from Mercer Island.

This evening’s very distinguished speakers Martin Bean of Microsoft , our Commencement speaker, and Ruth Mazzoni, Business Division, representing the faculty. Unfortunately, our student speaker is not able to be with us this evening.

Joining us on stage are college officers:

• Dr. Peter Maphumulo, Executive Dean

• Dr. Jim Bennett, Vice President of Equity and Pluralism

• Dr. Tom Pritchard, Vice President of Student Services

• Dr. Laura Saunders, Vice President of Administrative Services

• Dr. Michael Talbott, Vice President of Information Resources

• Dr. Paula Boyum, Vice President Workforce Development

• Norma Whitacre, Dean of Instruction

• Bea Hughes, Vice President of Human Resources, and

• Gaynor Hills, Vice President of Institutional Advancement

In addition to the people I just introduced, many other people at BCC have been instrumental to your accomplishments. Will the faculty, administrators and staff of Bellevue Community College please stand and be recognized—let’s give all these people a round of applause.

There are fifteen members of our campus community who have collectively invested 299 years in the futures of our students. I extend my profound gratitude to this year’s retirees, Sharon Foster, Bernice Gotta, Bob Ingalls, Carol Lonczak, Sally Meijsen, Al Mittendorfer, Norm Starke, Naomi Willis, Jan Valentine, Linda Leeds, Akemi Matsumoto, Peter Ratener, Kit Taylor, David Jurji, and Karen Raphael.

Last, and maybe most importantly, I want to pay tribute to some very special people -- your families and loved ones -- parents, spouses, children, grandchildren, and friends who have shared their support and sacrificed for you to be here tonight. These people deserve your appreciation. Let’s give them all a round of applause.

This year, Bellevue Community College will award nearly 2,000 degrees and certificates. Almost three-fourths of you have earned degrees that cover the first two years of a bachelor’s degree. Where do BCC students go with their transfer degrees, you may ask? The answer is “anywhere they want.” While most students transfer to the universities in our state, others have gone on to attend an amazing array of other universities such as Stanford, Berkley, Columbia, Brown, Moorehouse, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, and even Oxford University in England.

Others of you have earned Associate degrees or certificates from programs designed to help you immediately enter the workforce as nurses, sonographers, radiation therapists, radiologic technicians, managers, supervisors, application specialists, fire fighters or interior designers, among others.

As a class, you have unique profile. You are as young as 17 and as old as 66. Your average age is 27, indicating a large number of older students in addition to the “traditional” student who goes to college shortly after high school. 152 of you are international students.

A total of 591 of you are graduating with honors (a 3.5 grade point average or better), 36 with perfect 4.0 averages. Would those of you graduating with honors please stand and be recognized?

93 of you graduating tonight took part in the Running Start program, which gives high school students an opportunity to take college classes to get a head start on their college education. Many of you in this program are actually earning a high school diploma at the same time you receive your associate’s degree. What an accomplishment!

In a sign of the impact of new technology on education, more than half of you have taken at least a portion of your studies online – an increasingly popular option that offers access to education from remote locations and allows you to arrange your class schedule around work and other commitments.

This year’s students compiled a large number of achievements. Unfortunately, I will have time to mention just a few.

Our mathematics team – who we call our Mathletes -- placed ninth in the nation and first in the Northwest in the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges competition. It was the eleventh time in the past 12 years that BCC’s math teams have placed in the top ten nationally, and first or second regionally. In addition, the math department is recognizing one student for her strong course work, her commitment to tutoring mathematics and her express interest in teaching mathematics. For only the second time in the nearly 25 years since the inception of their departmental prizes, the special Mathematics Above and Beyond the Call Award goes to Anne Figge. They also recognized Nannan Li with the Lebon Prize for extraordinary mathematical accomplishment and contributions, and students Kim-Toan Bui, Allison Kunze, Julie Lewis and Nicole Tyler with the Outstanding Calculus Student Award. Congratulations for your accomplishments.

We extend our congratulations, too, to Tabitha Hanrion and Abdulrahman Salama, both graduating tonight, who were named to the Phi Theta Kappa honor society All-Washington Academic Team.

By invitation of the Governors Staff, the BCC Concert Choir, along with the professional jazz Band "The Jazz Senators," presented a Marquis performance of "The Duke Ellington Sacred Concert" at the World Music Festival in Olympia. Celebration!, our award-winning Jazz Choir, was selected to perform at the International Association for Jazz Education Conference in Toronto, Ontario where they were presented with an "Outstanding Achievement in Jazz Education" award. This was the 4th consecutive time Celebration has been selected to perform at the IAJE and BCC is the only college selected for every conference. Celebration! Was also selected to perform at the American Choral Directors Association Conference in Vancouver, BC, where they were presented with the "Sound of Excellence" award by ACDA for Excellence in Choral Music Education.

Way to go! We love our BCC music students and we’ll have the opportunity to experience firsthand their amazing vocal abilities later in the program.

BCC’s drama students, many of whom are in this room tonight, attended the Region VII Festival of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival/NW Drama Conference and earned high honors – extraordinary honors for community college students. Erin Tulberg was a finalist in the highly competitive and prestigious Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship competition. These are firsts for community college students.

Our BCC Bulldogs athletic teams also excelled again this spring. The women’s tennis team won its fourth straight league title. Our women’s softball team posted an amazing 42-6 record, with 3 players named to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-American team, including graduate Erica Addison. In Bulldog baseball, Brad Reid made the regional All-Star First Team as well as NWAACC First Team, and three others were selected for the regional Second Team, including graduates William Campbell and Stephen Foster. Our golfers, including graduates Matt Weyrick, Jeff Williams and Richard Lee, won the regional title, and missed the championship for the entire league by just one stroke! The league individual championship went to a BCC student for the second year in a row, in fact, the same student, and Richard Lee will go on to play golf for UW next year. Go, Bulldogs!

I’d like to take a moment to recognize a first, one for which BCC is especially proud. This year we are graduating the first students to receive a new degree: the Associate in Occupational and Life Skills. Not only is this a first for BCC, it is a first for the state and first for the nation, as the first higher education degree program for students who are challenged with learning and cognitive disabilities. The vision for this rigorous, four-year, 90-credit curriculum is to prepare students to live self-sufficient, fulfilling lives with meaningful participation in society.

As an institution committed to providing an open door to education for all, we know that students with such challenges can and do learn at an advanced level, and, what’s more, they deserve that opportunity. And now, our first four graduates, Leah Brand, Bergen Delisi, Anna Harnois, and Trent Marshall, have proven that to the world. Congratulations to you!

There are many, many more stories of extraordinary sacrifice, persistence, courage, and success among you. Many of you are the first member in your families to obtain a college education. Many of you have worked long hours, raised families, paid mortgages, and still found time for classes. Many of you have worked years to get to this point, taking only one or two classes per quarter, so that you could make a living while you attended college. Some of you have overcome incredible obstacles –such as disabilities, health issues, loss of employment, challenging family situations--to get your credential this evening. To all of you, I extend my profound admiration for your perseverance, determination and dedication.

To sum it all up, you are a very gratifying and accomplished class. We are honored to have been a part of your accomplishments. Congratulations! Let’s all give our graduates a resounding applause for these honors and their personal attainment.

And, now, it is my pleasure to introduce this evening’s commencement speaker, Martin Bean, General Manager, Worldwide Education Strategy, Products and Solutions Group, Microsoft Corporation. We are thrilled to have him join us tonight.

Martin has over 18 years in the training and education marketplace and is a recognized industry leader around the world. He has held executive management roles in several leading organizations including International, Novell, Sylvan Learning Systems, Thomson Learning, and New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, Inc.

As a long-standing pioneer in the education industry, Martin has made presentations to the U.S. Senate as part of the Technology Workforce Coalition on the importance of IT in the Workforce Investment Act. He has also testified on behalf of the Workforce Coalition before the Subcommittee on Oversight of the House Committee on Ways and Means. He moderated a Town Hall entitled “Conversation with the President,” for President George W. Bush that focused on U.S. technology workforce needs in the 21st Century. In the past couple of years he has also participated in a U.S. Department of Labor delegation to Hanoi Vietnam to speak at seminar on Economic and Employment Development and another delegation to Brussels Belgium to speak at seminar on Economic and Employment Development.

Dedicated to the continued advancement of the education industry, he is actively involved in representing the IT industry in a variety of public policy issues and is committed to advocating federal and state level solutions to address the IT worker shortage and the reform of education to meet the needs of today's workforce.

Martin is an often-quoted industry spokesperson and author. He has been instrumental in the development of tools targeted at sales professions in the IT industry, including the highly successful “Money Maker” training program and his insightful book, Selling IT Training, A Guide to Successful Selling in the IT Learning Industry.

Please join me in providing a warm welcome to Martin Bean.

We extend our gratitude to both Martin Bean and Ruth Mazonni for the excellent parting words to our students this year.

Now, as promised earlier, I am extremely pleased to introduce BCC’s award winning vocal jazz ensemble Celebration! under the fabulous direction of Tom Almli.

Weren’t they wonderful!  We are so lucky to have such fabulous student ambassadors for the college. 

Presentation of Degrees

It is now my privilege to will now present the class to the Trustees who will award their degrees. Paul Chiles, chair of the board of trustees, and Lee Kraft, vice chair of the board of trustees, please join me at the podium. Graduating class of 2008 please rise:

Board of Trustees of Community College District 8, it is my privilege to present to you Bellevue Community College's candidates for graduation for 2008, whom the faculty has judged to have met creditably the requirements of their several programs and to be entitled to their appropriate credentials, and who have come here tonight to receive from you, under the authority granted you by the state of Washington, their proper degrees, certificates, and diplomas and to accept from the college, their families, and the whole community, the congratulations they richly deserve.

Graduates, would the first row please approach the stage. Others may be seated until your row is called. Friends and family, please note that we have a professional photographer who will be taking close-up photos of your graduate receiving their degree. Please refrain from standing close to the stage as it blocks the view of those seated on the floor.

Recessional

Congratulations graduates, I charge you to use the skills and knowledge which you have attained to your benefit and to that of the community which has made your education possible. Your education will benefit you in incalculable ways in the years to come. No matter what field you have studied, your education at BCC has strengthened for you the ability to learn and to go on learning all your lives. Now is the time to turn your tassels graduates, as the sign of your graduation.

Many people worked hard to make this celebration possible: Special thanks to our keynote speaker, Martin Bean; faculty speaker, Ruth Mazzoni;; the Bellevue Community Band; Michael Gelotte, the bag piper; Celebration! and director Tom Almli; readers Vicki Artimovich and Tammi Doyle and the commencement committee.

We invite all of you to a special reception in the Student Union Building following the recessional.

Now, we will begin the recessional. Those on the stage will lead the recessional; followed by faculty, then graduates. Please, audience, hold your seats until the recessional is over in deference to our graduates. At that time, please exit through the rear doors (point) and meet your graduate in the R building courtyard just south of the Gymnasium.

As we conclude, I remind us of the words of G.K. Chesterton: "Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another." What work could be more important than the work to which we have dedicated our lives?

It has been a fabulous evening. Congratulations, graduates. Here’s to a great life!

Now, everyone, please stand for the recessional.

Return to President's Page