By HOWARD BUCK, Columbian Staff Writer
From the opening remarks to the keynote speech, transformation was the stirring theme of the 72nd Clark College commencement Thursday evening.
“I needed to reinvent myself,” said Sherman Alexie, a prize-winning poet, writer and novelist who overcame physical and cultural barriers on an Eastern Washington Indian reservation.
The stand-up comic used self-deprecating humor that had nearly 350 new graduates and proud family and friends in stitches in the Amphitheater at Clark County. But his message was in dead earnest.
“I got all emotional,” Alexie explained after his introduction, which included a scene from his film, “Smoke Signals.” “I’m the son of a woman who got her A.A. degree at age 46. My father got his GED at 32. When I look out at you, I see my Mom and Dad, sort of.
“I’m so touched to be here with you, to celebrate all your reinventions,” he said.
Alexie gave shout-outs to three particular subsets of the cap-and-gown crowd:
To single parents, after years of corralling children and cramming in studies: “Madness, madness! And now you’re here! Congratulations.”
To first-in-the-family graduates: “You are revolutionaries! And you’ve changed your families, forever.”
To those who’ve stumbled or overcome chronic cluelessness: “I’m sure your parents and brothers or sisters are sitting there, thinking, “ ‘Can you believe we’re here?’ I honor your reinvention.”
At the rear of the line of beaming graduates eager to take a bow and receive their new associate degrees or professional certifications, were living examples.
“You want the full story?” asked Steve Shelmet, 38, of Salmon Creek, who got past addiction and a brief prison stint, only to lose an electronics-sector job in 2004.
Boosted by job-retraining funds, he earned an applied science degree in welding technology. He’s already landed a well-paying job with Vancouver’s Thompson Metal Fab, a firm that helped build Portland’s aerial tram.
“It was a very rough transition” at Clark initially, Shelmet said. “I was out of school at seventh grade, I never really did good at school.” But that was then; now, he could look for his wife, Adrienne, and two children cheering him on. “It’s a complete success,” he said.
Success is all the Clark dental hygiene program knows. For 38 straight years, all graduating classes from Clark have aced their state exit exam, believed a national record.
On Thursday, Caitlin Richardson, 21, of Camas, had a white tooth stenciled atop her royal-blue cap. That would be a mandibular molar, tooth No. 31, she’d have you know. She’s already got six or seven job offers to pick from, she said.
Part of an ’08 hygiene class that went 25-for-25 in testing, Richardson also has knocked down four of five state license exams necessary to start work. All that’s left is a clinical final on Monday at the Oregon Health Sciences University: She’ll have 2½ hours to clean one-fourth of the mouth of a low-income patient — one who’s gone at least eight years without any dental care.
“I’ve been sharpening my instruments all week,” she said, shining her own bright smile.
Jill Swindler, 31, commuted to and from Longview to get her paralegal associate’s degree. Formerly with an insurance firm, she’s already at work for a workman’s compensation law firm. She enjoyed her new status with a pair of understanding classmates.
“From one hated career to another,” she quipped. “And then, you add my last name…”
Howard Buck covers schools and education. He can be reached at 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.
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