BRCC grads told to use their abilities

WEYERS CAVE – What’s next?

That’s the question Glenn DuBois, chancellor of the Virginia Community Colleges, posed to graduates at the 41st annual Blue Ridge Community College commencement Saturday on the Weyers Cave campus – the last for retiring school president Jim Perkins.

Speaking to the more than 500 students receiving degrees, diplomas and certificates, DuBois, during his 13 minute address, said they now have the ability to use the knowledge and skills learned at BRCC as a stepping stone to meet the challenges of the future.

“The ability to think, to reason, to analyze is essential to success,” DuBois said. “And the degree or certificate you are about to receive is basically a receipt – a validation that you have developed these abilities.”

The previous generation, DuBois said, has accomplished a lot – good and bad – but, he added, it has left as many challenges as it has solved.

“We’ll hand you the vaccine to polio, but we don’t have the answers to cancer, diabetes or AIDS,” DuBois said. “We’ll hand you the highest standard of living ever known to mankind, but we can’t tell you where to find the energy you’ll need to sustain it and improve it. We’ll hand you incredible weapons and strategies that can be used to win a war, but hardly any answers on how to prevent one.”

DuBois described his own educational journey as one that led an ambivalent teen through engaging classes during his own community college experience.

“Dishpan hands, my friend, that was the extent of my aspirations,” DuBois said, until he took his acceptance letter from community college and transformed himself with the help of what he said were teachers who were the first, beyond his mother, “to ever really encourage me.”

Student speaker Kristen Sorrell, who received an Associate in Applied Science degree in Nursing, said each of the students graduating Saturday has had a different journey.

Playing off the word “great,” Sorrell said students should celebrate graduation with family and friends while being appreciative of the opportunities and resources available at BRCC, and thankful for family, friends and the college community.

Sorrell called for graduates to continue educating themselves and said their experience is among the most valuable thing they have to offer. Borrowing the theme from the UCLA nursing staff, she said that “life is not what you are; it’s about what you become. Don’t be afraid to be great.”

Perkins said it was a day to celebrate the achievements of BRCC students in and out of the classroom.

“Today we will honor the success of our graduates,” Perkins said.

DuBois, meanwhile, honored the success of his friend and mentor, Perkins.

“Jim is the mathematician who never forgets the human side of an equation,” DuBois said.

Perkins’ career “is a textbook example of how to be an outstanding president,” DuBois said. “And in retiring, he is leaving us with one of the finest community colleges in the nation.”

Perkins said the commencement was an opportunity to celebrate students’ achievements in and out of the classroom.

So what’s next?

That’s a question for the students to answer, DuBois said. It was the college’s job, he noted, to provide students with the needed education and experience.

“The book of things we know is simply not as big as the book of things we don’t,” DuBois said. “It may always be so. Filling that next chapter, however, will be up to you.”

BRCC graduation

* six diplomas awarded in Automotive Analysis & Repair.