About 450 SUNY Orange graduates received their associate degrees and moved the tassels on their caps from right to left during three commencement sessions on May 23.
The ceremony came as the college steadily rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic enrollment dip—this spring was the fifth consecutive academic season with increasing numbers of credits and students.
It also came as the college—the oldest county-sponsored community college in New York state—gears up for its 75th anniversary celebration in the coming school year.
“Coming up on stage and holding the diploma for your ancestors and for you—that is a fulfillment of a family’s wildest dreams,” SUNY Orange President Kristine Young said during the ceremony at the Middletown campus.
“But you are also Orange County’s wildest dreams.”
Ms. Young went on to recount how a group of visionary citizens led the effort to establish the community college in 1950, with generous donations from Christine Morrison to benefit generations to come.
“My fellow trustees and I rejoice in your accomplishments,” Ralph Martucci Jr., chair of the SUNY Orange board of trustees, said at the ceremony. “I encourage you to continue your journey as you have learned here at SUNY that hard work and commitment will always pay off.”
The graduates received degrees in various areas, such as health care, business, math, science, and liberal arts. Most will either enter the workforce or further pursue their studies at a four-year college.
Angie Almeyda, a nursing graduate and mother of two grown daughters, was a student speaker at the ceremony.
“I came into the program very self-conscious because I knew I was going to be sitting in the classroom with students who were my daughter’s age, but I sat through the program, and I completed the program while working, being a mom, and being a wife,” she said.
“I am proud to fulfill my dream ... of becoming an RN. And I implore you to continue pursuing your dreams. Don’t give up on them—they are hard but not impossible.”
The college—the first in the nation to offer a two-year nursing associate degree in the 1950s—posted higher-than-average national licensure passage rates for all of its nursing programs this year.
Dawn Ansbro, executive director of the SUNY Orange Foundation, welcomed graduates to the ever-growing alumni community while encouraging them to stay in touch and pay it forward.
“Do good, be kind, and never forget to lend a hand to the person that comes up behind you, and congratulations again,” Ms. Ansbro said at the ceremony.
Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus was present at all three commencement sessions.
County funding is one of three major financial resources that the college relies on, the other two being student tuition and state aid.
In addition to traditional degree programs and credit courses, the college has made strides in diversifying noncredit workforce development programs.
Under Jean Leandre, the college’s new vice president in workforce, strategy, and innovation, courses for at least nine such jobs were added this spring. They include clinical medical assistant, certified emergency medical technician, manufacturing machine operator, credentialed substance abuse counselor, and certified fiber optic technician.
