Commencement

Jack Oharah: Welcoming Speech

Good Evening and welcome to Edmonds Community College's 2003 Graduation exercises. Thank you for being here and thanks to the commencement committee for working to make this such an impressive event.

This is truly a great occasion! This graduation is a proud accomplishment and a personal milestone for each of you and you deserve hearty congratulations for reaching your goals at Edmonds Community College.

Tonight, you graduates are giving your families, friends, teachers and supporters the wonderful gift of sharing in your accomplishments. None of us succeeds by going it alone, and I want to extend a personal thank you to all who have supported these students' efforts by teaching, by guiding, by encouraging and by helping out at home. Parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, husbands, wives, friends, faculty, staff and administrators--all have made a difference. Thank you for bringing this graduating class to us tonight.

Yes, this evening is a glorious celebration for graduates, friends, family, faculty and staff. But it is also an important event for our community—for our cities, our state, and our whole society. We know this education—your education--makes a difference in the quality of all of our lives. How can that be? How do we know?

Well, early this year we received the results of a county-wide study on the effects of community college education. We learned that at every step—whether you are here tonight to receive your high school diploma or GED or to receive a one-year certificate or a two-year degree—at every step this education will move you ahead in terms of being more likely to have satisfactory employment, to enjoy a supportive home life and to play a contributing and positive role in our community.

This education is worth a lot to each graduate and to all of us. It opens up possibilities and opportunities for a bright future. And as we wrap up a school year that has included record unemployment rates, international crises and war, a bright future and a society of thoughtful, hard working, contributing citizens is exactly what we need.

Community college education is a smart investment for students and for the state. For 36 years Edmonds Community College has provided education and opportunity and we mean to continue to do this, but now we need your help.

We have record numbers of students coming to our doors, but our state funds have been cut. Edmonds Community College is a poster child for doing more with less. In the next couple of years, we will have to make some tough decisions just to maintain the status quo. You may have read that our neighboring college in Everett has stopped giving tuition waivers to veterans—that was a tough decision they had to make and we are facing similar issues.

So, I ask each of you tonight—while you are rightfully flush with your success, while you see clearly that you have accomplished a lot here—tell everyone! Please talk to your families, your neighbors and, especially, your legislators about why they need to support this investment in community colleges and this investment in a brighter future.

We know education works. We know our graduates will do well whether they go on to university studies or join the ranks of the workforce here and throughout the world.

We know you are prepared to face the social and economic challenges of the 2000s, and we know you will make this a better community and a better society.

Good luck and best wishes as you pursue the new opportunities and challenges that await you. And, again, congratulations.