District finalizes graduation program
by Marry Barrera, Editor In Chiefy

    More than 600 graduates are expected to walk across the stage and receive their diplomas at the spring commencement ceremony.
    NE Campus will serve as host this year for graduation, scheduled Wednesday, May 14, 7 p.m. in the Fort Worth Convention Center.
    Petitions for graduation were received from 1,251 students.
    Associate in Arts degrees will go to 660 students; 439 students will receive Associate in Applied Science degrees, and 141 students earned certificates, according to Martha Graves of admissions and records.
    "There is only one graduation each year and not all students who petition attend the ceremony," Toni Kilpatrick, assistant director of admissions and records, said.
    Graduating students are those who completed their programs in the Summer 2002, Fall 2002 or Spring 2003.
    Dr. Larry Darlage, NE Campus president, will give one of the commencement speeches.
    Three others also will speak at the commencement.
    Michael Villarreal, a NW Campus student and member of this year's graduating class, will speak on behalf of this year's graduates.
    "I am thankful to be able to get through the first two years of college in this long journey," he said.
    "I feel like I just started, and to know I have done so much is overwhelming," he said.
    Villarreal, a first-generation college graduate, will receive an Associate in Arts degree. As an only child in a single-parent household, Villarreal dropped out of school and obtained a GED.
    When his mother became ill with cancer, Villarreal moved back to Fort Worth from Laredo.
    He had been working in radio, but decided to return to college to make his mother happy.
    "I thought I was at the top of my career after six years in radio, but I was deluded from the greater possibilities I could achieve through college," he said.
    Villarreal plans to attend either Texas Wesleyan University, where he received a scholarship, or TCU to earn a degree in broadcast journalism. "I want to be not only a broadcast journalist, but an adjunct professor at the community college level," he said.
    "I want to be able to work one on one with students so they can pursue their dreams just like I am," he said.
    Also speaking at the ceremony will be Jessica Kerfoot, a TCU senior, who graduated from TCC in 2001.
    Dental hygiene graduate from 1999 Kelly Muhney also will speak.