BC3's Class of 2020 hits 563
Butler County Community College's Class of 2020 will eclipse 560 graduates for a fourth consecutive year.
BC3's Class of 2020 includes 563 graduates, 518 of whom will receive associate degrees in career or transfer programs, and 71 of whom will receive certificates or workplace certificates that take one year or less to complete.
As of now, the college has canceled its official graduation ceremony — which would have been held Wednesday — due to the coronavirus pandemic. A new date has yet to be scheduled.
[naviga:h3]Disabled vet fulfills lifelong aspiration[/naviga:h3]
Kathleen Cashaw is the middle child of a hard-working illiterate father and of a strict mother who instilled the importance of education in her children. She did what neither her parents nor her two siblings ever did — she enrolled in college following her 1976 graduation from Aliquippa High School.
But her degree pursuits, in biology at Tuskegee University in Alabama and as a transfer in chemistry to Howard University in Washington, D.C., began and ended within a year.
“I messed up in college,” said the 61-year-old Cashaw, who now calls Butler home.
Thirteen months after her high school graduation, the former honor roll student enlisted in the Army and joined the Mississippi National Guard in 1986.
Over the years, she worked jobs in customer service and manufacturing.
“My father didn't think I would ever go back to college,” Cashaw said.
Thomas Cashaw Jr. did not live long enough to see whether daughter Kathleen would go back to college. Neither did her mother, Ollie Mae.
But Cashaw did go back to complete her degree at Butler County Community College. At just three months shy of her 62nd birthday, she is the most senior graduate in BC3's Class of 2020.
“For my age, I completed it,” Cashaw said. “Finally.”
Cashaw enrolled at BC3 in spring 2016 and earned an associate degree in BC3's 68-credit medical assistant career program. Cashaw is also among the 19.5 percent of BC3 graduates in its Class of 2020 who are at least 30 years old.
BC3 “was so accommodating for a nontraditional student,” Cashaw said. “I was older than most students, even the teachers.”
The disabled veteran volunteered at VA Butler Healthcare while making the dean's list twice and president's list once at BC3. Students with grade-point averages of 3.5 to 3.74 earn dean's list recognition and those with grade-point averages of 3.75 or higher, president's list honors.
“They want to help you,” Cashaw said. “They want you to succeed. And they mean it. You're not another number. They actually listen to you. And they kept me encouraged to keep going. It was very uplifting to me.”
Cashaw is one of 31 student-veterans in BC3's Class of 2020. She accepted a full-time position with a Pittsburgh healthcare agency.
“I knew I had potential,” Cashaw said. “I knew that it was in myself.”
<h3>Photo biz booming for Mars teen</h3>After experimenting with her mother's camera, Macey Wright applied skills she learned at BC3 @ Cranberry to establish her own business before even graduating.Earning the first of what she expects to be two associate degrees in career programs, Macey Wright credits the popularity of her self-named home photography studio in Mars to talents she's gained through learning editing software and honing equipment skills at BC3 @ Cranberry, as well as the faculty there.“There are certain things I would not know if I did not have the BC3 education,” said Wright, who began taking portraits as a 14-year-old of her friends and family using her mother's digital camera.Wright will be among the 70 percent of BC3 students graduating debt free this month. She completed the college's 65-credit photography career program and will next enroll in the 66-credit graphic design career program.While most students in BC3's career programs can develop skills to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation, Wright did it before graduation.“Business is going really well,” Wright said of her year-old studio. “I wasn't expecting to get so much business, and with being a full-time student, I definitely was overwhelmed a bit.”She's been hired to take portrait photographs for everything from formal occasions such as proms and weddings to action photographs in sports such as football and basketball.Wright has three times made BC3's president's list, an honor for students who attain a grade-point average of 3.75 or higher, and said she excelled as a result of BC3's 15:1 student-to-faculty ratio.“I really thrive in those small classes,” Wright said. “That was also a big factor for me (in choosing BC3). I thought that it was the best route for me, and being right in our community is so much better for me than being in a big university. It is the best possible decision I could have made.”<h3>Graduate highlights</h3>Students from Valencia and Kittanning earned two associate degrees and one certificate. Victoria Berzonski achieved degrees in criminology and in emergency services-police services option, and a certificate in emergency services-corrections option. Sara Peters earned degrees in business management and technical trades-cosmetology management option, and a workplace certificate in entrepreneurship.BC3 will also graduate its second class of presidential scholars; 126 members of its Rho Phi chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, an international academic honor society; and 16 members of Delta Theta, its chapter of Kappa Beta Delta, an international honor society for business students.Thirteen employees of Oberg Industries, a precision manufacturer in Freeport, will receive apprenticeship technology workplace certificates as a result of a program instructed on site by BC3. Courses in the college's 26-credit apprenticeship technology workplace certificate program, launched in fall 2016, are taught entirely at Oberg Industries.<em>Bill Foley is the coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.</em>
