FMCC president urges grads to put skills to work

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

Winnie Blackwood of Johnstown, center, talks with Catherine Hladik of Johnstown, left, and Kelsey Jo Blanton of Gloversville before the 51st Annual Commencement at Fulton-Montgomery Community College Friday, May 20, 2016.

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With bagpipes blaring, the Schenectady Pipe Band ushered Fulton-Montgomery Community College’s 474 graduates and academic dignitaries into the school’s 51st commencement ceremony Friday night at the Johnstown campus.

Family and friends filled the gymnasium to standing room only, whooping and hollering as the graduates filed into their seats before the stage. A young woman in the front row scanned the crowd and, upon finding her party in the bleachers, blew kisses up toward them.

FMCC president Dustin Swanger mentioned in his remarks 2016’s divisive presidential campaign and, while not advocating for any one candidate, encouraged students to use their educations to pay attention to elections and divide the political wheat from the chaff.

“We need to have people involved who don’t buy the hype. Who are willing to question statements made. Who are able to critically analyze what politicians say over the long term. And, who are willing to listen to other points of view,” said Swanger. “You learned those skills while at FM. Use them.”

Del Salmon, chair of the board of directors of the Foundation at FMCC, which supports fundraising and other alumni activities, said there’s value both in the degrees graduates have earned and their experience at the college.

“You worked really hard, you made lifelong friendships and you created lasting memories here,” said Salmon. “You made it.”

Mykha’el Wilson, a graduating student representing the class of 2016, told an anecdote of a time he had successfully tutored a fellow student on solving a particularly hard accounting problem.

“His face lit up with an enormous grin,” said Wilson. “He had defeated his Goliath that day.”

Wilson said the memory stuck with him because it took place in the math lab, where he himself had slain his own academic Goliaths during his time at the school.

Of FMCC, he said, “I was given a space where my success allowed me to speak into someone else’s life and help them gain success. It was such a poignant moment,” said Wilson. “As we reach out for help with one hand, we can still give help with the other.”

Wilson, who graduated with a 3.9 grade point average while pursuing an associate’s degree in business administration, plans to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree in accounting at The College of Saint Rose in Albany.

In an amusing and unscripted moment, keynote speaker Johanna Duncan-Poitier, senior vice chancellor for Community Colleges and the Education Pipeline for SUNY, stopped mid-speech to remove a potted plant whose fronds were blocking her view.

“This is making me nuts,” said Duncan-Poitier. “I’m trying to look at these beautiful graduates and I’m seeing green.”

She soon turned to a story from her own life, of when a high school counselor told her she wasn’t college material and shouldn’t waste her time with the “silly notion of a college education.”

“But I, like many of you, believed a college education was possible for me, despite the need to work nights and weekends to make it a reality,” said Duncan-Poitier.

She continued by saying that one of her “best rewards” was to visit with that same high school counselor when she was a senior official in the state education department.

“That’s why my life today is dedicated to educational opportunities we all know matter,” she said.

An older woman named Beverly Wilson, who is of no relation to student Mykha’el Wilson, was seated stage right on hard wooden bleachers, waiting for her friend and neighbor Beth Smith to receive her diploma.

Beverly Wilson said Smith is a mother of five children and had just completed a nursing degree at FMCC at the top of her class.

“She’s an amazing woman,” said Wilson, who’s known Smith for 20 years. Wilson said she encouraged Smith to get her degree and even had a personal stake in the endeavor.

“This is something I wanted to do when my kids grew up and never did it,” said Wilson, gesturing to the hundreds of seated graduates. “So I kind of pushed her to do this and it’s doubly gratifying that she made it through.”

At the ceremony, Smith received the Foundation of FMCC Nursing Elder Care Award, given to a graduating student who demonstrates excellence in the care of the elderly.

The ceremony ended much the same way as it began. The Schenectady Pipe Band played a triumphant recessional as students filed out to be reunited with family and friends. This time, however, they clutched that all-important piece of paper representing their of hard work and achievement.