June 19, 2017
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (June 19, 2017)—Thursday was a night of celebration for dozens of Tallahassee Community College students graduating from TCC’s GED or English for Speakers of Other Languages program. (Enjoy a video featuring GED graduates.)
There was even one student who graduated from both programs at the same time, as Sameer Ahmed walked across the stage twice Thursday night. Ahmed, who immigrated from Pakistan less than a year ago, began the ESOL program in the fall of 2016 and then enrolled in the GED program during the spring of 2017.
The ceremony was held at Turner Auditorium in TCC’s Fine and Performing Arts Center. An enthusiastic audience of family, friends and faculty members applauded the graduates as they entered to the strains of the classic “Pomp and Circumstance.”
Judge Nina Ashenafi-Richardson of Florida’s 2nd Judicial Circuit was the keynote speaker, and the student speaker was GED graduate Samuel Ross.
The winner of the Dream Big Scholarship, Kambrone Myers, was also introduced. The scholarship is awarded to a new GED graduate who goes on to enroll in a college-credit program at TCC. It is sponsored by Richard and Karen Moore in honor of Karen’s mother, Pearl Lamb Batchelor, who had to drop out of school in the fifth grade to work in the tobacco fields to help support her family. Batchelor went back to school at age 72 to earn her GED diploma.
The GED program’s top academic students were valedictorian Eva Graves and salutatorian Alex Phillip Grimaldo.
For many GED graduates, the next step will be to enroll in TCC’s university transfer degree program or one of its many career programs.
For information, visit www.tccadulteducation.com or contact the Adult Education office at (850) 201-8760 or ae@tcc.fl.edu.