2011 Commencement Ceremony

Three speeches are included here. Dr. David Woodall, President of Lake Washington Institute of Technology, Dr. Grace Lasker, Science Technology Faculty, Bronson Carter, Multi-Media Design graduate and Associated Student Government President.

I join the Board of Trustees, as well as the faculty and staff of Lake Washington Technical College in welcoming the 2011 graduates of the College and their family and friends to this Commencement Ceremony. I want to briefly introduce myself, since this is the first Commencement I have celebrated with the community at Lake Washington. I am Dr. David Woodall, and I joined the College after being appointed as Interim President by the Board of Trustees in January. I previously taught at the Oregon Institute of Technology in mechanical and manufacturing engineering and technology and also served as the Provost and Interim President. Also for the most recent two years I served as Director of the OIT Seattle program in support of Boeing.

I have only been at Lake Washington for six short months, but I want you to know that I found a dedicated and committed faculty who provide an outstanding education to our students. I found a terrific staff with a strong focus on the success of each student. I also found a Board of Trustees with outstanding individual member accomplishments and a commitment to the College and its future as a leader in higher education in Washington.

I am proud to have become part of this team. Our College has a long history of providing lifelong skills to students. The focus of our faculty has been to provide our students with the workplace skills needed for secure, well-paid careers in technology intensive fields. From automotive and diesel mechanics to dental hygiene, engineering graphics and applied design, we work closely with our industry sectors in allied health, manufacturing, business, transportation and computing to keep our curricula abreast of the latest technologies. We provide multiple pathways for entry or reentry into our programs to allow working professionals the opportunity to upgrade their skills or to obtain skills in a new area. We have roots in Vocation Technical education and decades of service to Washington’s citizens on the East Side of the Puget Sound metropolitan area as a Technical College. We are proud of you, our graduates, and your accomplishments. Whether it is a high school diploma from our Lake Washington Technical Academy, a certificate or an associate’s degree from the College in a technical discipline, our faculty will labor to hone your knowledge, skills and expertise. At this commencement ceremony we join you to celebrate a new page in the story of the College.

Today we are graduating the first graduates of our bachelor’s degree program, the Bachelor of Technology in Applied Design, or B-TAD, as we call it. In July we will continue enhancing the educational footprint of the College with a newly approved name that reflects the polytechnic nature of the school. Future commencement ceremonies will celebrate the graduates of the Lake Washington Institute of Technology.

But that is for those classes to come. Today we want to focus on the students here with whom we join to celebrate their success. I want to spend the remainder of my time highlighting the stories of some of our students.

I’ll start with Garren Handson. Garren started attending Lake Washington Technical Academy in January of 2008. As a young man, Garren had the opportunity to travel around the world with his family to help those in need. Because Garren did not attend a traditional high school as a full time student, he was home schooled by his mother. Unfortunately, Garren’s home school credits did not transfer into our high school program. This meant he had zero high school credits and would need to start working towards the 22 credits required to graduate from the Academy. However, along with working on his high school diploma, Garren chose to enroll in our Energy & Science Technician program. This month, Garren is earning both his high school diploma and his AAS, Energy & Science Technician. He will be the first Academy student to earn a degree in this rigorous program. In addition to enrolling in rigorous coursework, Garren participated in student government and numerous community service projects.

Garren was elected ASG president in 2010. This position displayed his cooperative manner in working with others, and his responsibility and commitment to his own education as well as the education of his fellow peers. Garren was serving at that role and made the student report to the Board of Trustees at the first Board meeting I attended last November. It has been a pleasure to work with Garren.

The next student’s story that I’d like to tell is that of Jennalee Zay-jack. Jennalee will be graduating with certificates in Business Administration, Microsoft Office Applications, Customer Service/Product Support, Project Management Support and Office Assistant. Jennalee did not plan to go to college, in fact she never thought it would be possible. She dropped out of high school and (these are her words!) spent her teens and early 20’s making bad decisions. Those bad decisions finally caught up with her and she had to take a hard look at her life. At this time she also found out she was pregnant. She knew she wanted a second chance for herself and a good first chance for her child. So, first she completed her GED. Then Jennalee came to Lake Washington and started taking classes for office administrative work. She set for herself the goal to be on the Dean’s list, where students must maintain a 3.70 quarterly grade point average. She ended up on the President’s List, maintaining a 4.00 quarterly grade point average, and became a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. She set a goal to complete more than one certificate and ended up completing five. By setting goals and exceeding them she kept moving toward her ultimate goal of being able to completely support herself and her daughter, on her own.

As a single parent she found that it was difficult to be a good parent and a successful student at the same time. Her experiences at LWTC in the classroom, with teachers and advisors, and as a work study employee in Enrollment Services, have enabled her to feel more independent, confident and positive. She has a bright future ahead of her. She wants to give back to her community to make up for some past transgressions and become a great role model for her daughter and other young women. We are very proud of Jennalee’s accomplishments and wish her well.

The final student story I mention will be that of Carissa Cuichta. When Carissa arrived at Lake Washington Technical College, she said she had no idea what to expect. You see, she had been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome and ADHD/ADD in 8^th grade, but the public school system had not done much for her in the way of accommodations as a high school student. However, when she arrived at LWTC she learned about TRiO Support Services for Students with Disabilities and the tutoring services they offer for students. She applied to join the program and was accepted into TRiO Student Support Services, in 2007. She received tutoring in math, a subject that had always been a struggle. She was inspired by her experience and own success, and applied to be a tutor for Photoshop, Government, and English classes, as she had good grades in all of these courses. Support services staff assisted her in the writing of an application essay for the BTAD degree to which she was accepted. Carissa is the first woman in her family to have gone to college. She is a leading influence in her family, encouraging both her brother and sister to pursue their dreams and go to college as she has. Carissa has always been determined not to allow her Aspergers Syndrome to run her life. During her college career at Lake Washington, Carissa maintained a 3.36 GPA while completing an Associate’s Degree in Multi Media Design and Production. Carissa has established that she is always willing to go the extra mile to help a struggling classmate, tutor for TRiO, and to mentor others. During her four year experience, she participated as an Associated Student Government student senator, was elected Associated Student Government as Secretary, and hired as an Event Programmer. In Carissa’s own words, “she’s had to learn skills such as empathy, non-verbal communication, and making friends, since Aspergers causes a deficit in social and emotional abilities”. But you would never know this upon meeting her. She is tenacious and determined to reach her goals. She took her dream one step further as she began the Bachelors of Technology in Applied Design degree at Lake Washington. Today, she will graduate as the first woman in her family to earn a Bachelor’s Degree.   

We wish Garren, Jennalee and Carissa all the best in their careers. Finally I would like to recognize President Emeritus Sharon McGavick, who retired in January after over three years of service to the College. That was her second retirement, for she had served as President of Clover Park Technical College in Tacoma for about a decade and joined us after her retirement there. Dr. McGavick was instrumental in the implementation of the first bachelor’s degrees at Lake Washington, and I want her to tell you about it in her own words. Please join me in welcoming former president, Dr. Sharon McGavick.

Dr. Woodall, Members of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Cabinet, faculty and staff, students, families, guests, and most of all candidates for graduation from Lake Washington Technical College, class of 2011; Welcome to your inflection point! Although I’m not 100% sure, I don’t believe anyone has ever given a math lesson as part of a Lake Washington Technical College commencement speech. I do know, however, that after today that is no longer the case. I would like to introduce to you the idea of a graphical inflection point. When a line is moving up a graph, it increases until it gets to a certain point, called an inflection point, where that line levels off and becomes flat.

After a while, the line continues to ascend up the graph like it did before. To think of this another way, the first part of the line is every day leading up to your graduation day. The second part of the line is every day after graduation day. And graduation day itself? Well, that is the inflection point. I remember my years as an undergraduate. My days and nights were filled with studying, writing papers, cramming for finals and no time for anything else. It was a mad dash toward graduation, and I was sprinting toward the end. I felt that day couldn’t have come quick enough. I even doubled up credits and worked over the summer so I could get done even faster because, at the time, I wanted to be done. Finished! No more classes! And when I got to my graduation day, I thought my journey ended there. My graphical line had climbed upward every day leading to graduation … and then, just like an inflection point, it flattened out on that day. As a college graduate, I had no more school to fill my time. My days felt odd, empty. Flat. And as exciting as that may feel for you all today, trust me when I say tomorrow is going to feel so weird! For me, it was only after school had ended that I started to think about what I had done and, more importantly, who I had become. Looking back, you’ve all come such a long way from day one. I’ve been fortunate to be a science professor here at LWTC because I get to teach people who have come to school to make a change in their lives and work toward realizing their passions. My classes are pre-requisites to other programs here at LWTC: Nursing, Dental, Occupational Therapy Assistant, Physical Therapist Assistant, even Funeral Services! I know so many of you out there, and I feel fortunate to have been there for many of your “day ones.” I heard many stories about why you came to school here. Many of you were so nervous – it had been decades since you took a science class, or some of you had never taken one before at all! Still others were balancing family and work and now school and you wondered if it was possible. But then you  But then you started to meet other people who were also working hard and you started to make study groups that carried through into your programs.

And as you finished your first classes and moved forward through your education here at LWTC, you realized that this-can-be done. And not only can this be done, but that something else was happening while you were here at school, too. And you know what? It happened to me as well...

During my years as an undergraduate student, a funny thing occurred...I had become a LIFELONG LEARNER. I'm pretty sure I know when IT happened, I just didn't know what IT was ... I had signed up for a class called History of the Holocaust. I was mesmerized by the idea that I could sit in a lecture hall in Lincoln, Nebraska, and learn so much about something I thought I already knew a lot about. That semester, I became a lifelong learner. I started taking -other- classes unrelated to my major like Poetry Writing, Canadian Fiction, and a Geology class affectionately known as Rocks for Jocks. And I kept taking more and more classes until I was exhausted. I needed to graduate. Done. But my graphical line wasn't finished because I had finally graduated. I had just reached an inflection point. YOU all are at your inflection point today. You're exhausted, you're DONE. FINISHED. Ready to go get a job and start making money. That's what it's all about right? Well, kind of. . . You see, somewhere along your journey you TOO became a lifelong learner. A Bachelor's of Technology in Applied Design student who took a sustainability class and now is involved with helping the environment; a diesel & heavy equipment tech student who learned physics in his class and now wants to learn more; a Lake Washington Technical Academy graduate who took an art class and realized there's so much more to it than just that one class and how exciting!

College facilitates your transition into a lifelong learner - you can't help it. Your brain has been re-wired. There's no going back now! As a college graduate you've gathered the tools and skills and abilities needed to move beyond this Inflection Point today and ascend upward on your graph once again... now, as a lifelong learner. And lifelong learning doesn't always mean more school. Maybe for you it means having a book on your end table, watching your mechanic work on your vehicle to learn more, keeping up with the latest trends in User Interface design, travelling to another country to witness architectural masterpieces or marvel at native flora or discover new spices and cooking styles.

Truth is, there's no turning back --you ARE a lifelong learner. Your life is forever one of learning and exploration and curiosity and excitement. Today is not your END POINT. Today is your INFLECTION POINT. And, thankfully, you have a long life of learning ahead of you. That's part of what being a college graduate is ... and now, that is part of who YOU are. Some call it lifelong learning, I simply call it LIFE.

I am so proud of everything you've done to make it here today, and I am honored to be a fellow college graduate with all of you. I hope to see you again soon. Thank you very much.

Bronson Carter - ASG President (Outgoing)

 While I’m up here I have to thank a few people; first of all Jesus Christ my lord and savior. (I sound like every artist at the Grammy’s) but i want to thank my teachers and the staff and faculty at Lake Washington. I want to thank all of the people I met during my 2 years here for your help and support. I want to thank my peers and co-workers in the ASG for keeping me motivated all this time. Thank you to my little sisters and my pops for being there always. And thanks to my sister back home and my mother most of all for her continued support and care. And I guess I can't forget my girlfriend. She’s helped me along the way a little bit too. Thank you all so much because I needed every bit of what you gave to get to this point.  NOW!!! On to my speech! 

I changed my speech yesterday because I realized I was doing a lot of talking about myself and my journey here at Lake Washington. But this is a time about all of us and all of our journeys at this school. And I also realized that people don't want to sit here too long and here me ramble. We all want to graduate and get outta here to go on to that next level of our lives. So I'm a keep it short and simple.

We all have taken the last year or 2 or 3 and worked extremely hard to achieve our goals of getting college degrees and certificates. And now that time is over. This is a great time for us as students, the faculty, and the entire school. This is one of the largest, if not the largest graduating class ever for Lake Washington. We have full and part-time students. We have worker retraining students. We have a large amount of high school students. And even the school's first cohort of bachelor's students. Sorry if i forgot anyone but as we can all see this is really a great time for the school. It shows the progression Lake Washington has made and we, the students, are that progression. We are the change of this college. So I want to congratulate everyone on your success. We’ve made it one step closer to getting a job, or starting a career, or continuing one. Just remember that this is not the last stop. There is so much more ahead of us that we can achieve. There are still many people that we can inspire. We are the examples for our siblings, parents, children and other family members and friends. 

So I’m going to close and just wish you all the best of luck. Continue to strive for the best and work hard to be any and everything that you've ever dreamed of. Thank you and God bless.