Collins Career Center grads ready to enter the workplace

Published 12:00 am Saturday, June 26, 2004

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - No caps or gowns were needed Friday as most Collins Career Center graduates proudly wore the uniforms in which they plan to take on the work world.

The Chesapeake vocational technical school hosted its annual commencement for the adult education programs Friday at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena. Approximately 150 students in the fields of law enforcement, trade and industry, computer technology and health participated in the event.

Superintendent Steve Dodgion welcomed the graduates and talked about the bright future in store for them.

Email newsletter signup

"This is not the end. It is the beginning," he said. "… Some people think that opportunity only knocks once. That is not true. Opportunity comes knocking on your door every day."

Nursing grads Cheryl Pierce of Kitts Hill and Chrissy Delawder of Ironton were excited as their big moment approached.

"We are relieved that we finally made it," Delawder said. "We will probably cry, then we will jump for joy."

Pierce agreed that it was a day of mixed emotions.

"It is bittersweet," she said. "It is good that it is over but we will miss all the people."

For 40-year-old Mike Little of Ashland, Ky., it truly has been a long road. After a brief attempt at college after high school and years of working, he decided to go back to school and focus on respiratory therapy.

"I just wanted to do something more fulfilling, work with people," he said. "It feels like the journey is almost over anyway. I still have to take my boards.

"Sometimes it seems like it goes fast, other times it seems like you are never going to get there in a two-year program."

Many of the graduates have already found jobs or started looking. Dodgion emphasized that their chances are good, pointing to the school's 90 percent placement rate and because the graduates have the technical training needed to jump right into the workplace.

"It seems to me, as time goes on and the economy continues to decline, students become more and more serious about their careers," he said. "I think it comes from the fact that many of them are the victims of layoffs or the economy. This is an opportunity for them to move forward."

State Rep. Clyde Evans (R-87th) gave the commencement address.

Programs graduating students were law enforcement, auto collision, auto mechanics, electricity, HVAC, industrial maintenance, welding, computer-aided drafting and design, computer technology, patient care, medical assistant, pharmacy technician, respiratory therapy, surgical technology and practical nursing.

Many other students graduated throughout the year from various programs.