Buchanan City – The Grand Bassa Community College Thursday, January 25, graduated over 284 students in different disciplines, as the keynote speaker urged graduates not to see age as a challenge.
Thursday’s graduation was the third commencement of the college since it was established in 2008.
Out of the 284, 84 graduated with associate degree in nursing and 45 earned associate degree in agriculture. Several others were earned associate degrees in business administration, teaching education and sociology.
Graduates of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) and engineering departments earned certificates in their respective area of studies.
The graduation convocation was earlier scheduled for December 2017, but was later pushed forward due to the suspension of the college President, Dr. Nathaniel Gbassaygee.
Rev. Samuel Reeves, interim president of Grand Bassa Community College, took over the administration; and he set an objective of hosting the graduation this month.
Brain McCollon, Director of Alumni of Princeton University in the United States of America, in his keynote address told the audience that, “Nobody is too old to learn” and called on Liberians to stop discouraging themselves from learning because of their age.
“Have you ever heard that there is a law that forbids certain age group from going to school, the answer is no”, Mr. McCollon said.
He continued: “People only talk about ages to discourage you but I am saying to you, don’t listen to those people, learn to the best of your ability and I can tell you that you are going to be a great person.”
In a statement by Rev. Reeves, he encouraged the new graduates to avoid wasting their time and should rather work hard for themselves and the country.
“I see this day as a dream come true, seeing most of you leaving this community college is good but our happiness and proud will be the work you are going to do out there, when you do good things we become happy but if your character out there is bad then you have made us shame,” Rev. Reeves said.
“You are graduating today but remember that the future of this college depends on your hand works, I am telling you to do more positive things that someone will say his girl or boy graduated from a good institution”.
Reeves told the audience that the college is helpful for everyone not only for those that have graduated.
“You need to take ownership of this college, today i am here but tomorrow you might be the once taking care of this college, nobody can predict the future”, The Interim President mentioned.
Meanwhile, Senator Nyonblee Kangar Lawrence of Grand Bassa County and Chairlady of the Bassa Legislative Caucus said owning a college is a proud for the county but she warned against politicizing the running of the institution.
She told the audience that many young people did not have the means of going to school in Monrovia, but they were part of the graduation because of the community college.
“We as members of the Caucus are happy for all of you but I want to tell you that we need to take politics out of this college, that’s the only way we all can take this college forward,” she said.
Isaac Julius Redd, graduating class president, on behalf of the colleagues thanked the college administration for the patience exerted in transferring knowledge to them.
“The staffs of this college took us as their children and helped us throughout the years and today we are out, thanks to all of you”, Redd said.
“My fellow colleagues let us work tirelessly to achieve our goals, this shouldn’t be the end of our journey, let’s move on and one day we will be help our country positively.”
At the end of the graduation program several people in attendance expressed happiness about the college and hailed former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for decentralizing tertiary education by initiating community colleges projects across the country.