Dr. Kitty Brandal, President and Program Architect for Corporate Compass Training, tied in a leadership theme of transformation, endurance, resilience, radiant light and action, or TERRA, in her commencement address.

Terra State Community College honored the 50th graduating class at commencement ceremonies on last Friday, as President Dr. Ronald Schumacher announced 187 students graduated with associate degrees in 27 fields, and 203 students earned a certificate.

The age range of graduates was 15 years old to 68 years old, five graduates were in high school as part of the College Credit Plus initiative, three students have a 4.0 GPA, 65 students have a GPA of 3.5 or higher, 12 were student employees and nine were veterans.

Student Speaker Heather Ross of Fremont, a nursing graduate, passionately spoke pf the importance of relationships, especially between students, and encouragement.

“I believe that each of us could not have gotten this far in college without the support of our classmates or even a lot of you sitting out there,” she said.

Dr. Kitty Brandal, President and Program Architect for Corporate Compass Training, gave a commencement address that tied in a leadership theme with the celebration of the College’s 50th anniversary. Her speech focused student transformation, endurance, resilience, radiant light and action, or TERRA.

“My hope for you, class of 2019, is that you will continue to make transformations in your life that will carve out the legacy that you want to leave; that you will build the endurance that you’ll need to take on new challenges now; that you will have the resilience to make room in your life for failure and become better than ever from it; that you will serve as a radiant light during times of darkness for others who need your light the most; and that you will continue being men and women of action,” said Dr. Brandal.

Robert Cordell, who earned his Associate of Applied Science in Manufacturing Technology, was filled with joy after the ceremony.

“It is never too late. I never thought in a million years I’d go back to college at my age, but I did it. It was really fun and I’m actually going to miss it,” said Cordell.