Computer-savvy Senior Among Moultrie Tech's June Graduates
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MOULTRIE, GA. Sixty-year-old Mary Diann Baker of Norman Park, left, beat the odds as a senior citizen who returned to college much later in life, realizing it was never too late to study the high tech and ever-evolving world of computer technology. Baker, joined by her Computer Information Systems instructor Pierre Rogers, right, as they prepared to enter Withers Auditorium at Moultrie Technical College’s semi-annual commencement ceremony held Friday evening, June 13, was honored with a computer networking specialist diploma.
Baker was among hundreds of her fellow MTC graduates, as the college recognized 230 allied health, business and computers, personal and public service, and technical and industrial program graduates in addition to over 140 adult education (GED) program graduates from its four-county service area of Colquitt, Tift, Turner and Worth.
MTC president Tina Anderson congratulated the winter and spring quarter graduating classes of 2008 as Rogers, the 2007 MTC Instructor of the Year award winner, led the faculty, staff and graduate processional as the event’s marshal. MTC Board of Directors Chairman Will Vereen of Riverside Manufacturing and other members of the Board, Brinson Brock of South Georgia Banking Company in Ashburn and Dawn Johns of Colquitt Regional Medical Center, assisted the College's administration in the conferring of awards.
One of the highlights of the ceremony was the commencement address given by MTC Foundation benefactor Clarence Smith of Tifton. In December 2007 Smith donated the single largest gift the College has received in its 43-year history in the form of more than 92 acres of wooded property on Perdue Road in Tifton. The property appraised at close to $600,000 and will be used for the first time this fall as the College opens its new Wildlife and Plantation Management program.
The MTC commencement event was also a personal highlight for Smith, whose grandchildren, Intermediate Emergency Medical Technology (EMT) student William Drew Cox and Radiologic Technology student Deidra Lynn Miller, both of Tifton, graduated.
Neuromuscular Therapy (NMT) instructor Amber Schwalls closed the event with an inspirational solo rendition of “Legacy” in honor of this year’s NMT graduating class, only the second of the program.
