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TOMBALL, Texas – It will be a Commencement unlike any before at Lone Star College-Tomball. For the first time in the college’s history, 19 students from Royal High School will graduate with Associate degrees they completed while attending high school as part of the Early College program. Six students in LifePATH®, a program for students with disabilities that affect executive functioning, are the first to receive Life Skills Certifications. Twenty students are part of the first class to earn degrees in the college’s Klein High School Nursing program. And one graduate, with autism, will make history when he accepts a well-deserved diploma he has worked on and dreamed about for nine years.
Commencement is on Saturday, May 11, comprised of two ceremonies, the first at 10:00 a.m. for students earning an Associate of Arts, Associate of Arts Field of Study, Associate of Science, Associate of Science Field of Study, or an Associate of Arts-Teaching. A ceremony at 1:00 p.m. is for students earning an Associate of Applied Science, Certificate or GED. Both ceremonies take place at Faithbridge Church Klein Campus, located at 18000 Stuebner Airline Rd.
More than 850 will graduate this year with several hundred crossing the stage to accept their diplomas amid the cheers of family and friends.
“I think the faculty and staff celebrate as much, if not more, our student’s success,” said Ann Johnson, the Vice President of Student Success and leader of the team that plans Commencement, then works behind the scenes to keep the ceremonies on track while making sure both are exciting and memorable.
LSC-Tomball’s size makes it possible for administrators, faculty and staff to build relationships with the students. During the Commencement ceremonies, those connections and sense of community make for some remarkable and emotional moments.
“We are so proud of the students that as they cross the stage the entire leadership team is cheering them on and recognizing their success,” Johnson added.
Kim Wilson is one of the students that’s thrived while attending LSC-Tomball and was selected to deliver the Student Keynote speech. Kim is an Honor’s College student, President of the Student Government Association, a member of Phi Kappa Phi, and various other student organizations.
While Kim refers to college friends and faculty as her second family, a member of her first family will be right behind her accepting a long delayed college diploma.
“My mother is amazing!” Kim says about the unexpected and rare opportunity to graduate with her mother. “She started college, when she was about my age, and then she married my dad, and they started a family. So while my dad was going to the University of Houston, she left school to take care of me.”
Her mother, Stephanie Wilson, earned a degree in American Sign Language taking most of her classes at the LSC-North Harris campus. When Ann Johnson learned that the mother and daughter were graduating on the same day but from different LSC colleges, she made a surprising offer, “I asked Kim if she would like her mother to participate in our Commencement ceremony, and Kim’s response was ‘is that even possible?’ ”
“All things are possible,” Johnson said, “Especially when it concerns our students.”
“I remember the day she called me,” said Kim’s mother, Stephanie Wilson, about hearing the news. “Kim was in a meeting about Commencement and she just happened to mention that I was also graduating in May from the North Harris campus. She said suddenly the people in the room started whispering and sending emails and the next thing you know, they want to know if I would like to follow Kim across the stage during LSC-Tomball’s graduation!”
“I never in a million years would have imagined us graduating together,” Stephanie said wiping away tears of joy. After balancing a job and family while taking classes in the Interpreting Training Program for four years, she’s grateful for this wonderful opportunity, “I'm so proud of her and I'm very lucky to walk across the stage right behind her.”
Kim’s graduation day student keynote speech weaves together the experiences she shared with her second family, formed among the people she met during college. Now, she’s a steadfast believer in the power of the Timberwolf, the adopted mascot of LSC-Tomball, because of the wolf pack’s natural traits of forming strong social bonds.
“The strength of the wolf is the pack,” Kim said referring to the college’s one wolf-one pack rallying cry, “I’ve been involved in groups where some members were going at a faster pace and maybe there’s one person who’s fallen a little behind, so you help that person and the whole team benefits. It made sense and it kind of clicked with me.”
That “all for one and one for all” caring culture is an embedded and driving force at LSC-Tomball. In an excerpt from her keynote speech, Kim sums it up this way, “The opportunities we were given here at LSC-Tomball were absolutely amazing and something we may never have expected when we started, but they helped us grow throughout the years and we will forever be grateful to those family members, both literal and metaphorical, that helped us along the way.”
Lone Star College-Tomball is located at 30555 Tomball Parkway, at the intersection of SH 249 and Zion Road. For more information about the college, call 281.351.3300 or visit LoneStar.edu/Tomball.
Lone Star College offers high-quality, low-cost academic transfer and career training education to 99,000 students each semester. LSC is training tomorrow’s workforce today and redefining the community college experience to support student success. Stephen C. Head, Ph.D., serves as chancellor of LSC, the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area with an annual economic impact of nearly $3 billion. LSC consists of six colleges, 10 centers, two university centers, Lone Star Corporate College and LSC-Online. To learn more, visit LoneStar.edu.
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