Published: May 10, 2008 07:53 pm         

Graduates glow in Bluefields

340 receive degrees at BSC commencement exercises

BRUSHFORK — The ranks of Bluefield State College alumni swelled with an additional 340 graduates joining their number Saturday morning at BSC’s 111th commencement exercises. Dr. Albert Walker, president of BSC said the 241 graduates who earned a baccalaureate degree, and the 99 students who earned an associate’s degree joined the 18,623 students who have graduated from the college.

“We who are assembled here today do so as a matter of pride,” Walker said. “Let your degree help you accomplish your dreams and enhance your lives.” Walker expressed his personal pride in the graduates, alumni, faculty, staff, students and graduates. “This is your day,” he said.

For the past several years, BSC has honored returning alumni who graduated 50 years earlier. This year, 10 graduates from the BSC Class of 1958 led this year’s graduates and took seats of honor in the front of the assembly along with two individuals who have received honorary doctorates from BSC, Virginia Hebert and William L. Williams Jr.

Two ladies led the 1958 graduates — Lois Johnson, a Johnson City, Tenn., native who lived and worked in Detroit, Mich., and Amrizene (Crews) Harris, a Bluefield native who lived and worked in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Johnson taught biology in Detroit public schools. “It’s a wonderful experience to be back here and to be able to do this,” Johnson said. “I’ve been practicing for this moment.”

Harris taught business education at Princeton High School in Cincinnati, and also served as business manager for a human rights agency. “It’s exciting to be here,” she said.

Michele Perkins, 39, was both honored and humbled to be receiving her associates degree in nursing. She is the wife of Bluefield firefighter Jimmy Perkins, and the mother of three children, Breanna, 14, Jarred, 11, and Kayton, 5. She works full time as an LPN at Bluefield Regional Medical Center and part time at Princeton Health Care Center, but she managed to maintain good grades and graduate through BSC’s LPN to RN Bridge program. She has worked 17 years as an LPN.

“I have to give God the credit,” Perkins said. “I’ve had great support from my family, and from a wonderful group of girls and wonderful teachers. When you have three children, life is a day by day thing. Things change all the time. That’s why I give God the credit for helping me make it through.”

Dr. Brian Noland, chancellor of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission gave the keynote address. He encouraged the graduates to, “tell others how you were able to achieve your dream,” and to “find ways to give back and improve the lives of others. In the process, you will enrich your life as well.”

Natasha Lee McMann, from Marlinton was Class of 2008 valedictorian and Tammy Marie Blankenship of Princeton was the salutatorian. McMann received her bachelor’s degree in Social Science and Blankenship received her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.

Sandra L. Payne, assistant professor of nursing received the BSC Foundation “Outstanding Faculty Award,” and BSC senior Gene Whitlow received the “Brian Delp Service Leadership Award.”

Vernon Fields, 80, of Glenwood attended the commencement to cheer for his grandson, Paul Bradley Fields, a magna cum laude graduate in the BSC computer science program, but some of his family members traveled to Huntington to see another grandson, Eric Michael Akers, receive a master’s degree at Marshall University.

“I decided to come here because this is Paul’s first degree,’ Fields said.

Others in the audience were trying to do double duty. “We have two graduating today,” Bill Marrs of Bluefield, Va., said. “One here at BSC and another one down at Virginia Tech. I think we can make it to both.”

Others on the program included The Reverend James J. Palmer, III, Christopher L. Majors, Dr. Bernadette Dragich, Lisa Neel, Joseph F. Lewis, Amanda Delp Williams, Dr. Donald Smith, Ray A. Mull, Dr. Thomas E. Blevins, John C. Cardwell and Joseph F. Lewis. Donald Kensinger and Dan Turner provided music for the ceremony.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

     

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