Bellevue College graduates 2,600

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Bellevue College awarded nearly 2,600 bachelor?s and associate degrees, certificates and diplomas June 15 at the school's 45th annual commencement ceremony. Graduates from the Bellevue area numbered 578.

?All of us here at the college are so proud of this year?s graduates and all that they have accomplished,? Interim President Laura Saunders said.

Shiv Batra, a BC Foundation board member, delivered the keynote address. He is co-founder, CEO and president of INCA Engineers (now a subsidiary of Tetra Tech), a successful Bellevue-based firm that has worked on some of the largest engineering projects in the world over the last 10 years, including the expansion of the Panama Canal.

The ceremony also included speeches by graduate Anh Nguyen, an international student from Vietnam and a member of the All-Washington Academic Team, and Pauline Christiansen, an English faculty member of 45 years who is retiring after joining the college in 1967, one year after its founding.

This marks the fourth year in which BC has conferred bachelor?s degrees, in Radiation and Imaging Sciences, and the second class for Interior Design grads.

In all, 66 students received four-year degrees this year. That number is expected to increase in coming years as the college adds bachelor?s degree programs, including one in Healthcare Technology and Management that is now enrolling students for classes that will begin this fall.

More than two-thirds of this year?s class is made up of graduates who are receiving associate degrees designed to prepare them to continue their education at four-year colleges and universities. In recent years, BC has transferred more students to these institutions than any other community college in the state.

Other graduates have earned associate degrees or certificates from programs designed to help them enter the workforce immediately in areas such as health science, business, early childhood education and information technology, among others.

The graduating class includes students as young as 15 and as old as 71. The average age is 27, indicating a large number of older students in addition to the ?traditional? student who goes to college shortly after high school. A total of 450 students are graduating with high distinction (3.75 grade point average or higher) and 421 students with distinction (3.5 to 3.74 GPA). Thirty-six have completed their studies with perfect 4.0 averages.

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