The 54th annual Blue Mountain Community College Commencement Ceremony will take place this Friday evening, June 10, and will honor 348 graduates.
The ceremony location this year changed from the BMCC Pendleton campus to the Pendleton Convention Center because the high number of graduates and ceremony attendees caused the ceremony to outgrow BMCC’s McCrae Activity Center.
The commencement ceremony begins at 7 p.m., and is open to the public. It is immediately followed by a reception in the Happy Canyon Room at the back of the Convention Center.
The 348 graduates range in age from 17-63, and hail from Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana and Washington. One-hundred twenty-five students will graduate with honors/high honors, and 13 graduates are veterans.
The 2016 Commencement speaker is Hermiston resident and BMCC alumnus Tim Mabry. Mabry grew up in Pendleton, and attended BMCC from 1970-72, serving as student body president during the 1971-72 academic year. Following his 1972 graduation from BMCC, Mabry earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Journalism at the University of Oregon in 1975. He has worked as an insurance agent and realtor in Northeastern Oregon since 1977, and purchased Credits, Inc., with his wife, Nancy, in 1990. The couple of 42 years have lived in Hermiston since 1976, and have two grown children and three grandchildren. Mabry has been an active member of the community, having served on the BMCC Board of Education from 1978-1986 and the BMCC Foundation Board from 1998-2005. In addition to many other community boards and volunteer activities, Mabry currently serves as the director of the Oregon Community Foundation, a position he’s held since 2010.
In addition to Mabry, BMCC President Cam Preus will address the graduates, as will two student speakers: 2015-2016 Associated Student Government President Emily Sexton, and graduate and BMCC employee Jennie Wolfe. Sexton’s mother – and fellow BMCC alumnus – Kim Sexton, will also serve as an honorary alumni marshal during the ceremony, as will BMCC alumnus Gibb Evans. Two additional honorary marshals will lead BMCC faculty and staff into the ceremony: Doreen Matteson, an Adult Basic Skills and English as a Second Language instructor for BMCC at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, and Kristi Sewell, BMCC’s contracts and assets coordinator.
In addition to Friday evening’s commencement ceremony, BMCC’s inmate education program will host a commencement for its graduates at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution at 9:30 a.m. Friday. The program leads the state in the number of GED completers. Also, BMCC’s nursing program will host its pinning ceremony for graduates of the Associate of Applied Science degree in nursing at 2 p.m. in the Bob Clapp Theatre.
