Graduates Urged to Use Their Talents; ‘Use Head, Hearts, Hands In Harmony’

The commencement speaker for Vance-Granville Community College’s Spring Graduation on May 14 told the 423 graduates that life boils down to choices.

Dr. Larry Keen, vice president of the North Carolina Community College System, said, “You must choose whether to take your God-given talents and apply them, to have your head, hearts and hands working in harmony.”

He also urged the graduates to step up and respond to the call for leadership and to also be good followers. “You are going to have to learn and re-learn over and over, and you must recommit yourselves daily to excellence,” Dr. Keen said.

Dr. Keen also talked of the changed world economy and how it places demands on us to change. He praised Vance-Granville for being the leader in BioWork training for the field that promises to be one of the growing fields of the future. The college has been offering 16-week BioWork classes at its Franklin County Campus in 2001, and it will begin a two-year Bioprocess Technology degree program on the main campus this fall.

For the first time this year, Vance-Granville also had a student speaker. Tarsher Yvette Scott of Henderson, who received her Associate in Applied Science degree in Criminal Justice Technology May 14, took that role.

Scott recalled the long nights of study and all the papers the graduates had to prepare. “That’s all over; now we venture out in the new journeys of life, and it is up to us to make it,” she said. “With the newfound knowledge you obtained here at Vance-Granville Community College, you are ready, and there is no limit.”

Under a sunny sky by the campus lake, 325 graduates of curriculum programs were awarded degrees and diplomas. Another 98 students earned Adult High School Diplomas or GEDs during the ceremonies.

Donald C. Seifert Sr., Chair of the VGCC Board of Trustees, introduced the speakers and assisted President Randy Parker in presenting degrees and diplomas.

This graduation was the first of two held annually at VGCC. Summer graduation is scheduled for Aug. 9.