High heels, flip flops, work boots, and hope...GED graduation

As part of my experience with Workforce, I was asked to help with GED graduation last night.  I arrived, not in my doctoral regalia, but in a suit and tie to help graduates in need of assistance in walking down the ramp from the stage that was constructed on the NEMCC gym floor.

As far as graduations go, the ceremony was, to say the least, informal.  Students, 200 out of 397 receiving their GED, filed in wearing caps and gowns over clothes ranging from Sunday best to shorts and blue jeans.  The audience was quite boisterous, the murmur of the crowd punctuated with cheers and whoops from families in the bleachers.  However, the lack of formality seemed to fit the situation, since the overarching theme of this gathering was to emphasize the second chance seized by the graduates to lift themselves a little higher along the path of education.

For the entirety of my duty I reflected on the true mission of the community college as well as the aim of post-secondary education as a whole.  The goal of higher education at this moment was neither to push the boundaries of science, art, or technology, nor produce students to transfer to universities to join the educated elite.  The goal last night was to acknowledge the sacred task of providing our fellow citizens access to opportunity and hope for better times.