Brent Learned talks about George Curtis Levi’s traditional “ledger art” with attendees of the 2016 Student of Color Luncheon.

The winter 2016 Student of Color Luncheon was filled with history–some of it long in the past, and some of it being made right then. The event featured artists Brent Learned and George Curtis Levi, whose work is currently being featured at the Clark County Historical Museum, speaking about atrocities committed against their ancestors in the 19th century. It also marked the bestowal of Clark’s first scholarship designated specifically for a Native American student.

Dream Catcher Scholarship recipient Channa Smith

The Clark College Dream Catcher Scholarship was first announced at the college’s annual Native American celebration in 2014. Clark student Channa Smith said she was honored to be its inaugural recipient. “When I first applied for the scholarship, I didn’t think much about it beyond, ‘Oh, it would be nice to have some money,'” she said at the reception. “But it’s been really transformative. I didn’t think how much it would mean to me to be recognized for my hard work.”

Smith has been very active in the community, both at the college and in Southwest Washington. A Coast Salish tribe member, she helped start Clark’s new Native American Cultural Club and has participated in local Chinook tribal activities since moving to the area.

Channa Smith was named the inaugural recipient of the Dream Catcher Scholarship at the 2016 Student of Color Luncheon. Multicultural Retention Manager Felisciana Peralta, right, presented the scholarship.

After the scholarship was presented to Smith, Learned and Levi spoke about creating the art that makes up “One November Morning.” This exhibit depicts the Sand Creek Massacre of November 29, 1864, when more than 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho people were killed in Sand Creek, Colorado, by U.S. Army soldiers.

“You have to know where you come from to know where you’re going, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Levi during the presentation. He urged students at the luncheon to remember their own history and communities as they progressed in life. “Go back to your communities after you graduate and give back,” he said.

“One November Morning” will be on display at the Clark County Historical Museum through May 28. As part of its “Native Voices” exhibit, the Clark College Libraries is hosting a free art walk on Friday, March 4, that begins at Cannell Library with a reception, then visits the Native American basketry currently on display at Archer Gallery, and ends at the Clark County Historical Museum.

The spring 2016 Student of Color Luncheon will be held in May. It will feature the announcement of the recipient of Clark’s 2016 Constance Baker Motley Scholarship, which is given each year to a Clark College student of color.

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Chinook tribal elder Sam Robinson and Clark student Channa Smith perform a blessing song to welcome the Native Voices exhibition to Clark College.

On February 9, Cannell Library was briefly filled with the sound of drumming and singing during the opening ceremony for “Native Voices,” a traveling exhibition examining Native American concepts of health and medicine that will be on display in the library through March 16.

“It’s an honor to be here today,” said Chinook tribal elder and Clark alumnus Sam Robinson before he began a blessing ceremony for the event. “There are a lot different kinds of healing among our people, and there’s a lot of healing needed in our community.”

Librarian Laura Nagel, Dean of Libraries and Academic Success Services Michelle Bagley, Enrollment Services Program Coordinator Anna Schmasow, Chinook tribal elder and Clark alumnus Sam Robinson, and Interim Director of the Office of Diversity and Equity Felis Peralta.

“Native Voices” is produced by the National Library of Medicine in conjunction with the American Library Association. Clark College Libraries were selected as one of about 100 sites to host the exhibition during 2016-2020, and is the first to do so in the Pacific Northwest.

The exhibition examines concepts of health and medicine among contemporary American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians. It features interviews and works from Native people living on reservations, in tribal villages, and in cities. Topics include: Native views of land, food, community, earth/nature, and spirituality as they relate to Native health; the relationship between traditional healing and Western medicine in Native communities; economic and cultural issues that affect the health of Native communities; efforts by Native communities to improve health conditions; and the role of Native Americans in military service and healing support for returning Native veterans.

Host sites are encouraged to incorporate additional materials and events into the exhibition, and Clark College Libraries has connected with several other departments and organizations—including the Chinook Nation, Clark County Historical Museum, the Clark College Office of Diversity and Equity, Archer Gallery, and Clark College Student Life—to create an impressive roster of events supporting the exhibition. These include:

• Tuesday, February 9, noon: Opening Ceremony featuring a blessing with drummers. Cannell Library
• Tuesday, February 16, 11:30 a.m.: Student of Color Luncheon with the artists of One November Morning, an exhibit about the Sand Creek Massacre hosted by the Clark County Historical Museum. Also featuring the awarding of the first Dreamcatcher Scholarship for Native American students at Clark College. PUB 161
• Thursday, February 17, 2:00 p.m.: “Earth-Based Mentoring through Grief,” a presentation from Tony Ten Fingers of the Oglala Lakota. GHL 213
• Friday, February 19, 2:00 p.m.: Documentary on One November Morning sponsored by the Native American Culture Club of Clark College. Foster Auditorium
• Wednesday, February 24, 12:15 p.m.: This week’s half-hour “30 Clicks” presentation covers the connections between wellness, illness, and cultural life. LIB 103
• Friday, March 4, 5:00 p.m.: Art Walk between Cannell Library, Archer Gallery, and Clark County Historical Museum
• Wednesday, March 9, noon: Closing ceremonies. Cannell Library

“We’ve mentioned over and over how well it fits together having all these events happening at the same time,” said librarian Laura Nagel, who helped to organize Clark’s hosting of Native Voices. “The stars really aligned for this.”

See more photos from the opening ceremony here.

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Professor Dave Kosloski, fifth from left, led Washington State community college students through their study-abroad experience in Italy during the 2015 spring quarter. Photo courtesy of Dave Kosloski

On February 11 at 4:00 p.m. in the Ellis Dunn Community Room (Gaiser Hall room 213), the Teaching and Learning Center hosts “Square Pegs in Round Holes: Making the Study Abroad Experience Meaningful for Community College Students,” the 2016 winter quarter installment of Clark College’s Faculty Speaker Series.

Communications studies professor Dave Kosloski shares insights, surprises, and challenges that are unique to the community college study-abroad experience. Based on his teaching-abroad assignment in Florence, Italy, during the 2015 spring quarter, he will explore the cultural, pedagogical and social issues that arise in working with the two-year student in a traditional study abroad environment.

Prof. Dave Kosloski

About Prof. Dave Kosloski

For 18 years, Professor Dave Kosloski has taught courses in the Communication Studies department at Clark College, most notably in public speaking and competitive speech and debate. He received his bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Public Relations at Georgia State University in Atlanta and his master’s degree in Communication Theory at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant. Even before completing his master’s degree, Kosloski began teaching courses in interpersonal and public communication. While working on doctoral coursework in Rhetorical Criticism at the University of Illinois, he not only taught public speaking and business writing courses but published numerous articles. He also co-authored and edited several instructors’ manuals to accompany textbooks in his field.

When Kosloski received his first teaching award as a doctoral candidate he began to realize that teaching, not research, was his passion. His first full-time teaching position was at a small liberal arts college in Nebraska. After two years there, he decided to focus his career on working at a two-year college.

From 1998 to 2013, Kosloski served as Clark College’s Director of Forensics. Under his tutelage, the Penguins routinely captured first place in speech and debate competitions in the Northwest Community College Division. Only once in 15 years did the team place second. He also led his teams to nine different international competitions in Italy, Belgium, Germany, and Quebec, where they ranked from second to sixth overall. Of his teaching abroad experience in 2015, he says it was not only an opportunity to connect with students more deeply as he had when he coached forensics, but to experience another culture more meaningfully than a week-long speech competition could offer.

A first-generation college student himself, Kosloski finds that community college students are truly committed to getting the most out of their education. He believes that “students will rise to whatever challenge they are presented.” In his 28 years teaching, Kosloski has observed that the skills he teaches are more far-reaching than students can imagine. “They come to class on the first day assuming they’re just getting a required course out of the way. They think it’s not useful to their major,” he says. “It may not be until years later when they have to make a presentation to a board of directors or a PTA that the skills they acquired are really useful. Their lives are empowered in ways they could not imagine on that first day of class.”

See a video of Prof. Kosloski discussing the study-abroad experience:

About the Faculty Speaker Series

The Clark College Faculty Speaker Series showcases recent experiences that have enriched both the life and teaching of a Clark faculty member. Faculty members share their developmental experiences with the college community—and members of the community at large—while addressing some of today’s most intriguing issues.

Established by Clark College with support from the Clark College Foundation, the series honors individual faculty members and celebrates academic excellence.

Photo: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Video: Clark College/Nick Bremer-Korb

Dr. Michael Benitez Jr. speaks at Clark College’s annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Today we’re going to have a little of what I call ‘critical fun,’” said Dr. Michael Benitez Jr. as he began to speak to the crowd gathered to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy in Gaiser Student Center on January 20. True to that promise, Benitez delivered a talk that was enlivened with humor—but also tackled serious subjects like racially based bias in this country’s social and economic systems.

“For 60 years, the data have told we need to change, but for some reason, we’re not looking at the data,” said Benitez, showing charts that revealed gaping discrepancies between African-Americans and whites in sectors like home ownership, wealth accumulation, and imprisonment. “We’re looking at things the comfortable way. Instead of looking at the needs of the oppressed, we need to take a look at the comforts of the dominant.”

Benitez acknowledged that most people in the auditorium probably were able to take advantage of at least some of those comforts. “This is the tension for those of us working for social justice,” he said. “Our complicity in the system that we aim to dismantle.”

Benitez spoke engagingly about both receiving and being denied privilege—being able to say and do things as an able-bodied man that a woman or person with disabilities might not be able to say or do, but also being a target for police as a Latino man. “There’s a reason I was pulled over four times by police on a road trip,” he said.

Benitez is the Dean of Diversity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer at the University of Puget Sound. He recently completed his doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies at Iowa State University. He has served higher education in different capacities for the last 15 years, including academic affairs, student affairs, diversity and inclusion, and teaching.

President Bob Knight announces the college’s new Social Equity Plan at the college’s annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Appropriately for an event celebrating Dr. King’s legacy, the speech was preceded by the announcement of the college’s new 2015-2020 Social Equity Plan. “We are being serious about this as we move forward with social equity,” said President Bob Knight in announcing the plan. “We want to make it fair and just for everyone at Clark College to achieve their dream. I will be at the forefront of it.”

“This is everybody’s plan,” said Clark College Multicultural Retention Manager Felis Peralta, who as a member of the college’s Cultural Pluralism Committee helped develop the plan. “It does not belong to the Cultural Pluralism Committee. It does not belong to the Office of Diversity and Equity. Everybody has a part of making Clark a better place for everyone.”

In his keynote speech, Benitez praised Clark for taking a stand on social equity. “I’m glad to hear the word ‘equity’ in there,” he said. “Because without equity, there no such thing as inclusion. Without equity, there is no such thing as diversity.”

Photos: Clark College/Nick Bremer-Korb

President Robert K. Knight received applause during the 2016 State of the College address when he told representatives from Ridgefield, “We’re coming!” — a reference to the college’s future North County campus.

Clark College President Robert K. Knight delivered the annual State of the College address in Gaiser Student Center on Jan. 21. In his speech he stated, “I hope to leave you with a sense of the transformation that is happening all around us.”

Some of that transformation is physical–Knight pointed to the upcoming opening of the new STEM building in the fall and the $10 million remodeling of the college’s culinary facilities to support the re-opening of the Culinary Arts program. He also highlighted more long-range plans, including the construction of a new campus in Ridgefield. Many representatives from Ridgefield’s government were in the audience and cheered approvingly at mention of the new campus.

Other transformations were more systemic. Knight spoke about the progress being made in implementing the college’s 2015-2020 Strategic Plan, which was unveiled during last year’s State of the College address. Steps taken to realize that plan include a new Social Equity Plan and Academic Master Plan.

Vice President of Instruction Dr. Tim Cook with President Knight at the 2016 State of the College address. Dr. Cook has been instrumental in developing the college’s new Academic Master Plan.

Another systemic change is a move toward “guided pathways,” a concept that offers students highly structured course plans that help them complete their programs efficiently. This strategy, popularized by the book Redesigning America’s Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success, has become a rallying cry among many in higher education who are working to boost students’ ability to complete their programs smoothly and quickly. “The vision of guided pathways is that every student has a clear road map to help them navigate each point in their journey at Clark,” said Knight.

To further help students on their journeys, Knight added, Clark would be adding more one-on-one assistance with navigating college systems. “Going on a computer to enroll and register online is hard enough for anyone, but especially if you don’t have anyone in your family who can help you with that,” said Knight, noting that almost three-quarters of Clark’s student body were first-generation college students. “So we’re backing off from doing all of that online.”

As is traditional, Knight used the State of the College address as an opportunity to showcase some of Clark’s talented and dedicated employees by presenting them with Presidential Coins. He also highlighted three Clark students whose stories reflected the many ways students find success at the college.

In conclusion, Knight said that just as Clark College was changing, so was the region that it served. “I feel the energy in Clark County right now,” he said. “I’m excited by what we can accomplish together.”

View more photos from the State of the College on our Flickr site.

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Lydia Yuknavich and Debra Gwartney, inset, are both reading at Clark College as part of the Columbia Writers Series.

Clark College’s Columbia Writers Series will host two outstanding writers during winter quarter, both of whom are known for their beautifully written but brutal memoirs—one a recollection of an adolescence wracked with alienation and abuse, the other a wrenching account of a mother losing her own daughters to drugs and the streets.

Lidia Yuknavitch and Debra Gwartney will be reading from and discussing their work at two separate events in February. These events, which are free and open to the public, will be held on Clark’s main campus.

Read more about these two authors and their appearances at Clark:

Debra Gwartney
February 17, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
Penguin Union Building, Room 258C

Debra Gwartney is the author of Live Through This: A Mother’s Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed Love, a memoir published in 2009 and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The book was also a finalist in 2009 for the National Books for a Better Life Award and the Oregon Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award. Kirkus Reviews decribed it as “[a]n achingly beautiful chronicle of unfathomable sorrow, flickering hope and quiet redemption.”

Gwartney is also co-editor, along with her husband Barry Lopez, of Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape. She has published essays in many magazines, newspapers, and literary journals, including American Scholar, TriQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, Salon, Tampa Review, Kenyon Review, Crab Orchard Review, The New York Times (“Modern Love” column), and others.

Gwartney is a recipient of fellowships from The Writer’s Center, located in Bethesda, Maryland, the American Antiquarian Society, Portland’s Literary Arts, The Oregon Arts Commission, The Wurlitzer Foundation of Taos, New Mexico, and Hedgebrook Writers Colony. In 2000, she was a scholarship winner for the Breadloaf Writers Conference. She is currently a member of the nonfiction faculty for Pacific University’s MFA in Writing program.

Lidia Yuknavitch
February 23,  11:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m. 
Penguin Union Building, Room 258A&B

Lidia Yuknavitch is the National Bestselling author of the novels The Small Backs of Children and Dora: A Headcase; the memoir The Chronology of Water; as well as three books of short fictions – Her Other Mouths, Liberty’s Excess, and Real to Reel; and a critical book on war and narrative, Allegories of Violence.

The Los Angeles Review of Books wrote of The Chronology of Water, “Yuknavitch’s fragmentary ‘anti-memoir’ relates a history filled in equal parts with violence and aesthetic discovery, sexual exploration and personal chaos. The Chronology of Water is striking for its emotional bareness, but also for its lapidary prose; each sentence is a beautiful gem, diamond-hard and precise.”

Yuknavitch’s writing has appeared in publications including Guernica Magazine, Ms., The Iowa Review, Zyzzyva, Another Chicago Magazine, The Sun, Exquisite Corpse, TANK, and in the anthologies Life As We Show It (City Lights), Wreckage of Reason (Spuytin Duyvil), Forms at War (FC2), Feminaissance (Les Figues Press), and Representing Bisexualities (SUNY), as well as online at The Rumpus.

She is the recipient of the Oregon Book Award – Reader’s Choice, a PNBA award, and was a finalist for the 2012 Pen Center creative nonfiction award. She writes, teaches and lives in Portland, Oregon.

“I believe we live now in a period of very great transition for human civilization,” said Dr. Hiroshi Komiyama as he began his presentation to a full Gaiser Student Center on October 28.

Titled “Beyond the Limits to Growth: New Ideas for Sustainability from Japan,” the far-reaching lecture began with the premise that the Industrial Revolution had triggered a massive increase in the gap between developed and developing countries—a gap that is now beginning to shrink, as developing countries begin to have access to the same technology and goods as developed nations, and developed nations begin to hit economic and environmental limitations to their growth. Japan, Dr. Komiyama said, began to encounter those limits earlier than other developed countries due to its limited size and natural resources.

“Japanese problems are the future problems of the world, I believe,” he said, going on to map out strategies he considered successful for combatting those problems, including aggressive pollution control measures; increased fuel efficiency; a focus on renewable and re-used resource; and social and technological changes to help keep older members of society active.

Dr. Komiyama is a prominent academic, scientist, engineer, and leading authority in global sustainability. President Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, his major fields of research include environmental engineering, advanced materials science, and knowledge sharing. He is also an advisor to the Japanese Government on subjects ranging from education to aging. In 2010 he founded the Platinum Society Network, dedicated to achieving a sustainable society that solves environmental, aging, educational, and economic issues.

A video of Dr. Komiyama’s presentation will be available on Clark’s YouTube channel by the end of November.

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Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Natalie Diaz. Photo credit: Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Angels don’t come to the reservation.

Bats, maybe, or owls, boxy mottled things.

Coyotes, too. They all mean the same thing—

death. And death

eats angels, I guess, because I haven’t seen an angel

fly through this valley ever.

This year’s Columbia Writers Series kicks off with Natalie Diaz, the award-winning author of When My Brother Was an Aztec, a book of poetry which New York Times reviewer Eric McHenry described as an “ambitious … beautiful book.” Diaz will be reading from her book at 1 p.m. on November 10 in PUB 161 on Clark’s main campus. This event is free and open to the public.

Diaz’s honors and awards include the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, the Louis Untermeyer Scholarship in Poetry from Bread Loaf, the Narrative Poetry Prize, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship.

Natalie Diaz was born in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California. She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian community. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Old Dominion University, where she received a full athletic scholarship. Diaz played professional basketball in Europe and Asia before returning to Old Dominion to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree.

Diaz now lives in Mohave Valley, Arizona, where she works with the last speakers of Mojave and directs a language revitalization program. In a PBS interview, she spoke of the connection between writing and experience: “For me writing is kind of a way for me to explore why I want things and why I’m afraid of things and why I worry about things. And for me, all of those things represent a kind of hunger that comes with being raised in a place like this.”

Directions and maps to Clark are available online. Individuals who need accommodation due to a disability in order to fully participate in this event should contact Clark College’s Disability Support Services (DSS) Office at or (VP). The DSS office is located in room 013 in Clark’s Penguin Union Building.

The Columbia Writers Series was launched at Clark College in 1988, bringing local, national and international authors to the college and the region. Information about the Columbia Writers Series is available at www.clark.edu/cc/cws.

Biology professor Steven Clark

Clark College is inviting the public to come back to school for a series of free seminars that explore the lighter side of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). New this academic year, the Clark College STEM Seminar Series launches on Friday, October 16, at noon in Anna Pechanec Hall room 201 with “Rockin’ Out with Rock Rabbits.”

This seminar covers research done by biology professor Steven Clark on pika, tiny rabbit-like creatures who normally live in high elevations. Prof. Clark will discuss what he’s discovered about an unusual population of these creatures living in the Columbia River Gorge whose survival may hold keys to understanding how our environment can adapt to global climate change. Expect Prof. Clark, who recently received an Exceptional Faculty Award, to share photos and insights in an exciting, high-energy presentation geared toward anyone with an interest in science—no Ph.D. required!

Other fall quarter events in this series include:

• The Science Behind Sci-Fi with Prof. Joe Pitkin, Oct. 30
• Handicapping Horse Races with instructor Robert Weston, Nov. 13
• Breaking the Cycle of Abuse with Prof. Mika Maruyama, Dec. 4

All events are held on Fridays from noon to 1 p.m. in APH room 201. All are free and open to the public. Light snacks will be available and guests are welcome to bring their own lunches with them.

“Clark College has long been a center for STEM learning in this region,” said Clark College STEM Coordinator Erin Harwood, who helped organize the seminar series. “We already do lots of outreach to encourage interest in STEM among our community’s young people through our annual Science Olympiad and other events. This is a way to show adults as well that learning about STEM can be lots of fun. We’re hoping people start looking forward to these seminars as a great way to spend their Friday lunch break learning something new.”

Clark College is located at 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver. Driving directions and parking maps are available at www.clark.edu/maps. Anyone needing accommodation due to a disability in order to fully participate in this event should contact Clark College’s Disability Support Services Office at (360) 992-2314 or (360) 991-0901 (VP), or visit Penguin Union Building room 013, as soon as possible.

Almost 740 graduates attended the 2015 Clark College Commencement ceremony, held June 18 at the Clark County Event Center.

The sun shone, the bagpipes sounded, and the members of Clark College’s 79th graduating class gathered together—more than 730 of them, making the 2015 Commencement ceremony the college’s largest yet.

The Clark County Event Center was filled with friends, family members, and other well-wishers at the event, which took place during the evening of June 18.

First-generation college graduate David Scott ’15 attended the 2015 Commencement ceremony.

Approximately 20 members of the crowd were there to cheer on David Scott, 22, who was receiving his Associate of Arts degree. “I’m the first one in my family to graduate from college,” said Scott, whose neck was adorned with multiple leis, a traditional Hawaiian token of celebration. “They’re pretty stoked.”

Scott, who is transferring to Washington State University Vancouver in the fall and hopes to become an elementary school teacher, said he was impressed by the caring nature of his professors at Clark. “They genuinely want you to be successful,” he said as he waited in line to enter the ceremony.

Scott said he also appreciated the flexibility of Clark’s online courses. “I’ve been working fulltime as an overnight stocker at Winco Foods,” he explained. “It’s really good that they have online classes because I get off work at 7:30 a.m. and need to sleep.”

In total, some 2,000 degrees and certificates were conferred upon the Class of 2015. This year’s graduating class included 278 Running Start graduates—a new record for the college, which has the largest Running Start program in the state.

“We got here at 4:45 to line up,” say these Running Start students from Woodland High School, including N.E.R.D. Girls president and Clark Aeronautics Club member Adeline Dinehart, third from left.

Adeline Dinehart stood with five friends at the head of the line of graduates. All six young women were Woodland High School students who had attended Clark through Running Start. Dinehart had thrived at Clark, where she became president of the popular N.E.R.D. (Not Even Remotely Dorky) Girls Club and a member of the Clark Aeronautics Club, which successfully participated in a NASA rocketry competition in Huntsville, Alabama, this spring.

“We were the only community college in the maxi competition,” she said proudly. “The atmosphere there was great—really competitive, but also really encouraging of one another.”

Dinehart said she appreciated the faculty’s promotion of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, citing engineering professors Carol Hsu and Tina Barsotti in particular. “Tina and Carol are amazing,” she said. “They have taught me so much over the past two years.”

Dinehart will be attending University of Washington in the fall. Two of her friends, Jamie Kitchen and Shianne Burhop, are also college-bound, but headed to George Fox University, where they will be roommates.

“The credits from Clark transfer really well,” said Kitchen. “That’s part of why I chose to come to Clark.”

“Going to Woodland, you have the choice as a Running Start student between Lower Columbia College and Clark,” explained Burhop, who had adorned her cap with the Bilbo Baggins quote, “I think I am quite ready for another adventure.”

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This year’s ceremony saw an explosion in cap decoration, and as students filed into the ceremony, the westering sun glinted off of messages outlined in glitter and rhinestones.

Outgoing ASCC President Emmah Ferguson addressed the Class of 2015 at Commencement. Both her siblings also attended Clark through Running Start; Ruth graduated from the University of Washington the week before Clark’s Commencement and Zachary is entering Duke Law School on a full scholarship in the fall.

The ceremony itself held many highlights. Student speaker and ASCC president Emmah Ferguson shared how Clark had developed an unrealized love of science within her.

“We have all had obstacles,” she said. “For me, my biggest obstacle was probably myself and my ideas about what I could and couldn’t do. … It is our resilience and persistence that has gotten us this far, and it will take us where we want to go next.”

Curt Warner, left, thanks Clark College President Robert K. Knight before giving the 2015 Commencement keynote address.

Former Seattle Seahawks running back and businessman Curt Warner gave the keynote address. Noting that he had grown up in West Virginia’s coal mining country, where career options were limited, he urged graduates to aspire toward their goals, even if others tried to dissuade them.

“If people say you can’t succeed, you don’t have time to listen to that,” he said. “Dedicate yourselves to your goals. Never give up. People who make goals get slapped down at least once. Everyone loses sometime. It’s how you handle the losing that makes you a winner.”

The ceremony also served as the announcement of the 2015 Exceptional Faculty Awards. The 2015 awardees are Steven Clark, professor of biology; Alison Dolder, instructor of baking; Matthew Gallaher, instructor of English; and Michiyo Okuhara, professor of Japanese. President Robert K. Knight also announced the recipient of the 2015-2016 Community College President’s Award, Kathleen Fockler.

High school diploma recipient Leeann Hodge addressed the 2015 Commencement. This was the first time in many years that high school diploma and GED recipients participated in Commencement.

New this year, students who earned GEDs or High School Diplomas through the college’s Transitional Studies program were invited to participate in the ceremony. Approximately 25 of these students participated in the ceremony, and High School Diploma recipient Leeann Hodge was one of two student speakers to address the crowd.

Transitional Studies graduates Chris Boots, Devon Zach, and Amanda Halbert wait in line to participate in the 2015 Commencement ceremony.

Before the ceremony began, these students had stood in a line adjacent to the line for associate degree and certificate recipients. One of them, Amanda Halbert, said she decided to pursue her GED once her youngest child was getting ready to start kindergarten. She is beginning college-level classes at Clark now, with the goal of earning a degree in graphic design.

“It’s a little nerve-wracking, looking across at the people in that line, getting their associate degrees,” she admitted. “But I’m proud of myself for being here. And I know I’ll be in that line one day.”

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

To see more photos from Commencement, visit Clark’s Flickr album.