Education Nearly 180 students graduate from community college in St. Andrews

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Derwin Gowan
Telegraph-Journal

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ST. ANDREWS - Hannah McGee told her classmates Monday to shine like the sparkler she lit at the New Brunswick Community College graduation ceremony in St. Andrews.

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Derwin Gowan/Telegraph-Journal

Valedictorian Hannah McGee holds up a sparkler as she delivers her address to her fellow graduates at the New Brunswick Community College in St. Andrews Monday.

McGee, who picked up her diploma in Hospitality and Tourism Management: Hotel, Restaurant and Culinary, lit the sparkler to make a point during the valedictory she delivered for her class.

"We are all now ready to be lit and to explode into the workforce with a bang," the daughter of Piper and Chris Scalabrin of St. Andrews said, advising the graduates to "burn brighter as we leave this school for the final time."

Among the struggles she noted the students had to deal with was working hard to catch up after a five-week strike by their janitors and other provincial workers in 2008 cost them class time.

"The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match. Each one of you is a fuse," she said, quoting Edward Koch. "New Brunswick Community College has been our matchbox, so to say."

The St. Andrews college conferred diplomas on 178 graduates Monday in aquaculture technician, computer network technology, computer systems technician, electrical, marine diesel mechanics, office administration, refrigeration and air conditioning technician, welding, English second language, hospitality, tourism management and health, and human services.

Veterans Affairs Minister and New Brunswick Southwest MP Greg Thompson presented the Governor General's Academic Excellence Award to Tamara Tally of the Hospitality and Tourism Management: Global Tourism and Marketing program.

The award goes to the student earning the highest overall average in a two-year program.

William H. Cassidy, president of the Washington County Community College in Calais, gave the keynote address, and also received the Lady Dunn Award of Excellence as a leader in post-secondary education.

Be bluebirds even when people call you buzzards, he told the students, drawing from his own experiences.

As a youngster, his elementary school teachers placed him with the "buzzards," not expected to shine academically, rather than the more favoured "bluebirds."

In high school his guidance counsellor told him, "Billy, don't even think of higher education," he said.

After his first semester at the University of Maine in Machais, his advisers told him to take time off to get his priorities right, he said.

He became the first Washington County Community College graduate to come back to head up the institution, Cassidy said.

"So today all of those who thought you were a buzzard, you proved them wrong," he said, urging the graduates to "seize the moment" when any chance to advance their education presents itself - and to personally thank the "heroes" who helped them.