This is the second year the college has held a graduation ceremony following its summer semester. About 1,500 were in attendance. The ceremony’s keynote address was presented by Henry “Hank” M. Huckaby, chancellor of the University System of Georgia. He said that while the world is not perfect, today’s graduates are equipped with the education and human spirit necessary to make the world a better place.
“Coming up with the solutions and ideas to meet the challenges facing our world is not an easy task,” Huckaby said. “Well-educated graduates are Georgia’s most important resource for the future. We need you to use the power of your education to help us meet the challenges that lie before us.”
Huckaby also encouraged the graduates to be life-long learners, and to focus not merely on having more, but being more. Speaking on behalf of the graduating seniors, biology major and former Marine Blaise Chamberlin shared a story illustrating the personal attention for which GGC is known. Facing a particularly difficult class that shook his confidence, Chamberlin dropped the course. His instructor immediately called him and encouraged him to re-add the course, which he did, with only two minutes to spare before this semester’s drop-add course deadline. The decision enabled him to graduate today.
“I would not be here today without these great professors,” said Chamberlin, who graduated summa cum laude. “My standing here in front of you today is evidence of my success, and it was literally two minutes away from not becoming a reality.”
The ceremony also included recognition of GGC’s second ROTC cadet to be commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army National Guard, Jose Targa. Second Lt. Targa will soon move to his first duty station in Germany.
