In the News | Three Rivers graduates ‘reach their goal’
Norwich, Connecticut (The Day, May 22, 2019)— Elise Sperry of Waterford put things in reverse Wednesday, when she walked among the 563 graduates receiving degrees and certificates from Three Rivers Community College.
Frederick-Douglas Knowles II kisses his granddaughter Emerie Saige Thompson, 1, being held by his daughter Lanaisha Rodriguez after delivering his commencement address during Three Rivers Community College’s Commencement on Wednesday, May 22, 2019, at the school in Norwich. Over 550 students were awarded various degrees and certificates during the ceremony. (Sarah Gordon/The Day)
Sperry, 17, won’t graduate from high school until June 11 at the Three Rivers Middle College Magnet High School on the same campus. She has navigated the worlds of both high school and college for the past two years, earning an associate degree in liberal arts at the community college, while also serving as president of the group, Student Advocates for Gender Equality, and a member of the college Performing Arts group, Voices of the River.
Sperry also volunteered extensively in the community, at schools, convalescent homes, homeless shelters and animal rescue programs. She’s not done with double-dipping. She earned a full scholarship to continue her education at the University of Connecticut, where she plans a double major in geography and human rights. After that, she plans to obtain a master’s degree in public health and continue with a career in academic research.
Sperry said she was “definitely busy” and admitted to being exhausted at times, but the former fencer at Waterford High School said she has learned how to juggle a tough schedule.
“It’s actually easier to balance if you’re good at time management,” she said.
Sperry was one of several students Three Rivers Community College President Mary Ellen Jukoski highlighted Wednesday in her address to graduates, asking each of those named to stand to be recognized. She then turned to more general accomplishments, asking graduates to stand if they had to work their way through school, raise a family while attending school, or were the first in their families to graduate from college.
Few remained seated through her list.
“You chose to enroll at Three Rivers for its quality education and its affordability,” Jukoski said. “You walked the halls of this fine institution, studied in the library, attended classes with your peers and our faculty. You did all of this to reach your goal, to graduate.”
Then Jukoski asked the graduates to stand, turn around and “salute your faithful supporters and enthusiastic cheerleaders.”
Thomas and Mary Baudro of Gales Ferry didn’t have to strain to find their support network. The married couple were Three Rivers’ oldest graduates Wednesday and have been married for 45 years.
Mary Baudro collected her first college degree Wednesday, graduating Three Rivers magna cum laude with an associate degree in visual fine arts. But Tom Baudro is a pro at these ceremonies, having received three associate degrees and three certificates from Three Rivers since 2009 in architectural studies, drafting and design, and a bachelor’s degree in general studies from UConn.
“He hasn’t missed a semester in 17 years,” Mary Baudro said of her husband.
Tom Baudro, a designer at Dufrane Nuclear in Winsted, will enroll again at Three Rivers in the fall for a geographic information system class, which he said will help in his position as a member of the Ledyard Planning and Zoning Commission.
Mary Baudro said she has been a “full-time homemaker, mother and grandmother” most of her life. In 2014, she was checking out the Three Rivers website and meant to sign up for an assessment of prior learning, “and my finger slipped.” She connected with the fine arts degree program, and never went back.
One of her paintings was selected for the Three Rivers art show at the Slater Memorial Museum in Norwich. She said she got the itch to enroll at Three Rivers in the past while her husband was working on his degrees, but she was always too busy at home.
Now, she said, “I want to paint for fun.” She earned a scholarship for a free class at Three Rivers, and will take a history class this summer, and next year, she will enroll for a general studies degree.
Attending Three Rivers now runs in the Baudro family. Mary said she had a couple of classes with her granddaughter, Lillie Kuhn, a current Three Rivers student.
Jukoski touched on the many varied journeys students have made to reach Three Rivers and Wednesday’s graduation day. Jogaintz Ledoux of New London arrived in the United States from Haiti as a boy. Ledoux on Wednesday earned an associate degree in mechanical engineering technology, and will work as a full-time employee of Pratt & Whitney, where he was a summer intern. He will participate in a program at Pratt that will pay for his bachelor’s degree once he has worked there for a year.
“Yet today, her dedication and perseverance enabled her to graduate magna cum laude in nursing,” Jukoski said, “while helping the homeless and volunteering in the medical reserve corps and Uncas Health District. … She aspires to be a great nurse.”
While many Three Rivers graduates came from homes far away to attend the community college, keynote speaker Frederick-Douglass Knowles II, poet laureate of Hartford and an associate professor of English at Three Rivers, grew up in the neighborhoods surrounding the school.
His grandmother Martha Montgomery moved to Norwich in 1940, and established herself as an active volunteer, member of the NAACP, delivering meals on wheels and active in many civic ventures. In 1980, she purchased the house at 575 New London Turnpike — directly across from Three Rivers’ current campus.
But instead of being welcomed, the family on the very first night in their new home frantically threw buckets of water at a burning cross on their front lawn, with an attempted message that “this is not your neighborhood.” Instead, Knowles said, his grandmother cultivated that land with fruit trees, a flower garden and vegetable garden, and now 110 grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren and great-great-great-grandchildren. Montgomery died two years ago at age 102, and Thursday would have been her birthday, Knowles said.
“Graduates, you are my community,” Knowles said. “Like you, I sat in these same seats and received my associate degree from this institution. Homage is the purpose of community. So I ask you, graduates, what is your purpose? How will you pay homage to your community?”
Class valedictorian Michelle Reynolds of Ledyard, who received her associate degree in graphic arts with a perfect 4.0 grade point average that earned her the Medallion for Academic Excellence, thanked her classmates and many professors who pushed her to achieve and made her feel comfortable despite her being 10 years older than most of her classmates and unfamiliar with things like Google Drive or memes.
“Today,” she said, “we are all valedictorians.”
The original article can be found here: ‘Three Rivers graduates ‘reach their goal’’
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| Three Rivers Community College Commencement |
In the News | Three Rivers grads urged to ‘cultivate your community’
Norwich, Connecticut (Norwich Bulletin, May 22, 2019) — Commencement speaker Frederick-Douglas Knowles II urged Three Rivers Community College graduates to “cultivate your community” by using their new educations to make where they live better places.
Almost 600 graduates received associate degrees and certificates at the college’s 54th commencement exercises on Wednesday.
Hundreds more family members and friends cheered them on at the ceremony held at the New London Turnpike college’s campus.
Graduate Lisa Holliday, of Griswold, points to her family and her favorite professor Wednesday at the 54th Commencement for Three Rivers Community College. [John Shishmanian/Norwich Bulletin.com]
Knowles, an English professor at Three Rivers and Hartford’s poet laureate and an African American, told the students he grew up in a home across the street from the college. On the first night his family moved in, neighbors burned a cross in their yard.
“This insidious act did not deter our family,” Knowles said. While racism, homophobia, elitism and similar attitudes are trying to collapse communities, education can fight them, he said.
“Cultivate your community like it was your own Garden of Eden,” Knowles said.
Class Valedictorian Michelle Reynolds thanked her fellow graduates, as well as the college’s faculty and staff, and family members and friends for support.
“We don’t succeed alone,” Reynolds said. “We stand on the shoulders of those who have lifted us.”
Reynolds, who graduated with a perfect 4.0 average and received an associate degree in graphic design, also was awarded the Medallion for Academic Excellence.
The two oldest graduates at the ceremony were Thomas and Mary Baudro of Gales Ferry, who have been married for 45 years. Thomas Baudro, 74, actually received his third degree from Three Rivers – in technology studies, and received a bachelor’s degree from UConn.
“This is a community college that is truly a community,” said Mary Baudro, 72, who received her first degree in visual fine arts. “I didn’t know I could draw until I got here.”
The youngest graduate is Elise Sperry, 17, a student at Three Rivers Middle College, which is a magnet high school on the same campus. Sperry will get her high school diploma from that school in June. In addition, it allowed her to receive an associate degree in liberal arts and sciences.
She will be joining the honors program at UConn in the fall and as well as being able to get her bachelor’s degree in two years instead of four, Sperry has received a full scholarship.
“There’s a lot of things I’m definitely going to miss here,” Sperry said. “I feel very prepared going on to UConn.”
Another well-prepared graduate is Jogaintz Ledoux, of New London, a native of Haiti, who is getting a degree in mechanical engineering technology. Ledoux, 20, got a summer internship with Pratt & Whitney and now will work there full-time.
Zaha Bush, 24, of Salem, received her degree in nursing after four years at Three Rivers, while working full-time.
“It was affordable. It has a lot to offer,” Bush said of the college. “The staff would really help you. They want you to succeed.”
She said she tells friends thinking about college, “Come here first. It’s a great place to discover yourself and get direction.”
“I love it. I’m sad to be leaving,” graduate Sadie Wilson, 24, of Voluntown, said. Wilson received her degree in criminal justice enforcement and is studying to be a lawyer. She also will get her bachelor’s degree this year from Roger Williams University.
She spent four years at Three Rivers. “I got pregnant, so it took me a little longer,” Wilson said, holding her 17-month-old son, William Babbitt, before the start of the ceremony.
At the ceremony, Norwich community leader Lottie Scott, whom Jukoski praised as “a wonderful role model,” received the Distinguished Community Service Award.
An honorary degree also was presented to William Stanley, a graduate of Mohegan Community College, which merged with Thames Valley Technical College to form Three Rivers. Stanley is an executive at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London and is president of the Three Rivers Foundation board of directors.
— By John Barry, Norwich Bulletin staff writer
The original article can be found here: ‘Three Rivers grads urged to ‘cultivate your community.’
READ MOREHartford Poet Laureate to deliver Commencement address at Three Rivers on May 22, 2019
Three Rivers Community College is pleased to announce that Frederick-Douglass Knowles II, Hartford Poet Laureate and associate professor at Three Rivers, will be the keynote speaker at the College’s fifty-fourth commencement ceremony, which will take place on Wednesday, May 22 at 5 p.m. outdoors on the campus green.
“Frederick-Douglass’s community activism, appointment as Hartford’s inaugural poet laureate, and close ties to Norwich made him a natural choice for Commencement Speaker,” said Three Rivers President Mary Ellen Jukoski. “We are honored that he will be speaking and fortunate to call him one of our own.”
Frederick-Douglass Knowles II is a poet, educator and activist involved in community education. He is the inaugural Poet Laureate for the City of Hartford. In this role, he promotes awareness and appreciation of poetry, spoken word, and writing in Hartford; and endeavors to instill pride in the community. His collection of poetry, BlackRoseCity was featured at the 2018 Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Knowles’ works have been featured in the Connecticut River Review; Sinkhole Magazine; Poems on the Road to Peace: A Collective Tribute to Dr. King Volume 2; The East Haddam Stage Company of Connecticut, The 13th Annual Acacia Group Conference at California State University, Lefoko magazine, and Fingernails Across the Chalkboard: Poetry and Prose on HIV/AIDS from the Black Diaspora by Third World Press. His poem “Mason Freeman Cuts Jenkins Down,” has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Knowles is also an Associate Professor of English who has taught at Three Rivers for 11 years in the English and Communications Department. He also teaches classes at a local prison as part of the Three Rivers Community College Second Chance Pell Grant program. In addition to serving as the Three Rivers representative on CSCU’s Students First Consolidation Committee, he co-founded the Men Against Domestic Violence Artistic Expression annual event which consists of music, poetry readings and performances, and a live artist painting. Knowles also chairs the TRCC Community Involvement Committee.
READ MORECommencement 2019
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Commencement took place on Wednesday May 22, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. on the Green at Three Rivers Community College.
Photo Gallery
You’ll find over 300 photos of Commencement in our Flickr gallery, TRCC Commencement 2019.
Live Stream Videocast of Commencement 2019
Please note to start, the ceremony begins at 1:30 in the video.
Media Coverage
The Bulletin – Three Rivers grads urged to “cultivate your community”
The Day – Three Rivers graduates “reach their goal”
The Day – Gallery: Three Rivers Community College Commencement
Norwich Patch – Three Rivers Community College Commencement May 22
Commencement Speeches
Please visit our Commencement 2019 Speeches page to read the transcripts of the following:
Welcome: Mary Ellen Jukoski, Ed.D., President, Three Rivers Community College
Greetings from the Board of Regents for Higher Education: Richard J. Balducci, M.A., Board of Regents for Higher Education
Greetings from the Faculty: Michael Carta, M.S., Professor of Chemistry, Chair, Faculty Senate
Student Graduate Address: Michelle Lynn Reynolds, Valedictorian
Commencement Address: Frederick-Douglass Knowles II, M.A., Hartford Poet Laureate, Associate Professor of English
Commencement Address Speaker
Three Rivers Community College is pleased to announce that Frederick-Douglass Knowles II, Hartford Poet Laureate and associate professor at Three Rivers, will be the keynote speaker at the College’s fifty-fourth commencement ceremony, which will take place on Wednesday, May 22 at 5 p.m. outdoors on the campus green.
Frederick-Douglass Knowles II is a poet, educator and activist involved in community education. He is the inaugural Poet Laureate for the City of Hartford. In this role, he promotes awareness and appreciation of poetry, spoken word, and writing in Hartford; and endeavors to instill pride in the community.