New Beginnings

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. No, I’m not quoting Andy Williams and one of his popular holiday tunes. The end of the spring semester and all of the celebrations make this a unique and wonderfully exciting time. Commencement represents the ultimate culmination of efforts. It’s the pinnacle moment in the life of an academic enterprise.

Our students bring life to our institution. As employees organized to serve them, commencement becomes a very sacred time, and we relive precious moments as we reflect fondly on our own graduation events. We also intentionally preserve culture and honor tradition through planned celebrations of accomplishment. Students and guests alike who participate in the formal commencement exercises will see symbols, and those symbols have deep meaning. For example, symbolism occurs in the colors of the faculty’s commencement hoods, which convey academic programs and disciplines. Symbolism shows in the bands that surround our college mace, which represent the four counties we serve. Tradition is proudly reflected in our own college seal as we honor our founding dating back to 1868.

For me there is a feeling of relief and contentment following the commencement ceremony. It’s something I can’t explain. It may be similar to the empty nest time when children leave the home. Perhaps it’s a time to let go and a time to bid our graduates Godspeed. There is a feeling of joy and excitement for we know the journey begins, and new frontiers await our graduates as they are now equipped with a new set of skills that they worked hard to acquire. We ask them to become a respectful owner of their new academic credential and treasure the moments they spent at TCL with their faculty and fellow learners. Further, we believe it’s time to begin establishing their own traditions, and among them, we carefully challenge our graduates to never stop learning and to share their knowledge with others and commit to making a difference in the world. We salute our graduates for their accomplishment and we wish them endless success as they create a new beginning for themselves and our community.