PVCC Commencement: ‘Be an optimist’

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s mother once told him: “If you want to be right, be a pessimist. If you want to do right, be an optimist.”

Kaine passed along that aphorism Friday evening to 373 graduating Piedmont Virginia Community College students.

“Optimism has the ability to bend events your way,” Kaine said. “If you’re optimistic, you’ll be amazed at how much you can affect the outcome of whatever you’re attempting to do.”

There are many challenges in America today, Kaine said. The nation is fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The economy is seemingly on the brink of recession, with a rising number of home foreclosures and the prices of gas and food reaching record highs.

Yet Kaine said he also sees positive signs for the future. Virginia college students boast the highest rate of volunteerism in the nation. Voter turnout in the presidential primary is twice as high as the past two election cycles. And the crop of candidates running for president is more diverse than ever before.

Kaine advised the sea of black gown-clad graduates to go forward into their future endeavors with optimism.

“We want you to inspire us,” he said.

The Piedmont students who received their associate’s degrees Friday at the University of Virginia’s University Hall are among some 16,000 students graduating this spring from a community college in Virginia.

PVCC President Frank Friedman “introduced” the community college’s class of 2008 to the hundreds of friends and family members in the audience.

He asked all the students to stand who worked at least 30 hours a week in a job while taking PVCC classes. The vast majority stood.

He asked any students to stand if they received financial aid. All but a handful stood.

Any parents? Around 20 stood.

He asked if any students were the first in their family to graduate from college. Many jumped to their feet. More than a few audience members cheered.

“There they are, ladies and gentlemen,” Friedman said. “The diverse, multi-talented, hard working, exceptional class of 2008.”

Since PVCC was founded in 1972, roughly 8,500 students have graduated from the college. Many more — an estimated 150,000 — have attended classes there.

A full 20 percent of the Charlottesville region’s high school graduates immediately go on to take courses at PVCC, he said.

“We truly are the community’s college,” Friedman said.

Around 500 Piedmont students, including the majority of the graduates, are transferring this fall to four-year institutions such as Virginia Tech, UVa and James Madison University.

Jacob Neal, a graduating PVCC student who was named by USA Today as one of the nation’s top-20 community college students, encouraged his classmates to say “yes” when an opportunity comes along.

His “secret,” he said, is “simply taking advantage of every opportunity that presents itself, no matter how small or mundane it may seem at the time.”

Neal praised the accomplishment of his peers. “Each and every one of us had to overcome obstacles to achieve our goal of a college degree,” he said.