MTC Tifton Student Graduates Twice in Same Week
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Moultrie Technical College Tifton Campus GED and Cosmetology programs graduate Felicia Tumbling, left, celebrated her second graduation in two days with instructor James Tompkins, right, prior to the June 18 credit programs ceremony. |
For most students a graduation ceremony comes around once in several years. For Tifton’s Felicia Tumbling, this week it came twice in two days.
The 34-year-old mother of two walked across Moultrie Technical College’s (MTC) Tifton Campus conference center stage on Thursday, June 17, to accept her GED diploma, donning a teal blue cap and gown which signified her graduation from MTC’s Adult Education program.
Then, on Friday, June 18, Tumbling traded teal for traditional black and marched across the Withers Auditorium platform in Moultrie to receive her Cosmetology diploma. However, taking those steps was not an easy road to walk for this single mother.
She was laid off from CentraPak in Ashburn after ten years of seasonal work when the company shut its doors in September 2008. Tumbling, already a certified nursing assistant (CNA) for 13 years, also began caring for her grandmother and her mother who was diagnosed with cancer and began chemotherapy treatments.
That same year, Tumbling began preparing to take the GED examination and continued for two years while also pursuing her Cosmetology credentials at MTC Tifton.
Cosmetology instructor James Tompkins said of Tumbling, “Felicia was able to keep up her academics and to persevere toward graduation, despite taking care of very sick family members and her two children at home.”
She says she won’t stop now. Although she enjoys cosmetology, Tumbling says her real passion is nursing. She plans to build on her experience as a CNA and come back to Moultrie Tech once again to pursue a third diploma – this time in the Practical Nursing program.
Tumbling was among hundreds of her fellow MTC graduates Friday night at Withers Auditorium in Moultrie, as the college recognized over 300 allied health, business and computers, personal and public service, and technical and industrial 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 2010 as MTC Surgical Technology instructor and 2009-2010 Rick Perkins Instructor of the Year award winner Sherry King led the faculty, staff and graduate processional as the event’s marshal.
MTC Board of Directors members Brinson Brock of South Georgia Banking Company in Ashburn and Betty Newkirk of the Tift County School System assisted the College's administration in the conferring of awards.
One of the highlights of the ceremony was the commencement address given by Kerry Waldron, an author and economic developer from Cook County, as he congratulated the graduates on “moving from the back seat to the driver’s seat.” The faculty, staff, graduates and their friends and families were also treated to an inspirational solo by Moultrie Tech’s Neuromuscular Therapy instructor Amber Schwalls.
