'You are exactly what RI needs': More than 1,800 receive degrees at CCRI's 51st commencement

By Kelcy Dolan
Posted 5/25/16

Just before more than 1,800 Community of College of Rhode Island graduates took the stage last Friday afternoon, May 20, new president Dr. Meghan Hughes asked them to show their pride in CCRI and their talents. Similarly, Gov. Gina

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'You are exactly what RI needs': More than 1,800 receive degrees at CCRI's 51st commencement

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Just before more than 1,800 Community of College of Rhode Island graduates took the stage last Friday afternoon, May 20, new president Dr. Meghan Hughes asked them to show their pride in CCRI and their talents.

Similarly, Gov. Gina Raimondo told them they are exactly what the state needs right now.

“You better not think of leaving Rhode Island,” Raimondo said at the 51st commencement ceremony. “The grit, determination, wit, and discipline that got you here today will get you through the rest of your lives. You are exactly what Rhode Island needs. We need your talent.”

Hughes, in her first commencement ceremony as the school’s new president, said there were three things she knew to be true about CCRI – it is proud to be the state’s only access institution; it has a strong tradition of both liberal arts and workforce training, both of which will continue; and students are the school’s “greatest asset.”

“Every day I see your display of resilience, grit, and strength of purpose. You impress and inspire everyone who works for this college,” she said. “This tenacity is an asset, and it’s one your next college or employer will be incredibly fortunate to have.”

Hughes assured the graduates their “life stories” are their greatest attribute, and told them to be proud of the obstacles they have overcome to walk the stage. They are what “empower” students to be successful, she said.

One student who shared his life story was graduate Brandon Langdon, the student commencement speaker. Langdon, 26, is a veteran who served six years in the U.S. Coast Guard. After drug-runners ambushed his crew and Langdon’s supervisor died in his arms, he began suffering from PTSD and was discharged.

On Friday, he spoke in front of his fellow classmates, family, and friends, graduating with an associate’s degree in general studies as a member of Phi Theta Kappa and with highest honors.

Addressing the crowd, he said community college students often do not fit the “traditional mold” of undergraduates. Students come from far and wide, but each has their own story, their own purpose in wanting a degree, and numerous obstacles they had to combat to walk the stage.

“Some of our greatest achievements happen when we overcome our worst failures. I know each and every single one of you have had some form of adversity to overcome, but it’s your perseverance, mental toughness, and sheer willpower that has brought you to this moment in life,” he said.

Langdon believes that if there is no better gift than giving, then there is “no better satisfaction than earning,” knowing that you have finally achieved your goals through hard work, late nights, and far too much coffee, defying all the odds and overcoming all the obstacles.

He said in his own experiences, he has been “beaten and broken down,” but it is not what happens to us, and rather how we come back from our mistakes and failures, that defines our character. He, like so many of the graduates at CCRI, never gave up, continuing to bounce back despite adversity to finally receive that degree.

Langdon said: “Don’t look at failure as a negative thing. Look at it as an opportunity. An opportunity to reinvent yourself, an opportunity to learn something new, an opportunity to say that no matter what life throws at me, I am ready for the challenge, I will overcome it and I will be a better person for it.”

Hughes said community colleges across the nation are helping to ensure more Americans are graduating from college and entering the workforce with a degree, and changing the lives of their families to be the first to walk the stage to receive a degree.

For this to continue to expand and improve, Hughes encouraged the new alumni to “lift as you climb, to mentor and support our next generation of students as they advance themselves. So come back often.”

In a departure from prior ceremonies, members of the Rhode Island congressional delegation, including Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. David Cicilline, were in attendance but didn’t speak. Also attending but not addressing the graduates was Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian.

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