It was the best of times: A tale of two graduates

By BILL CHAISSON
Eagle Times
CLAREMONT – As River Valley Community College celebrates its 50th anniversary, it is graduating a diverse group of students. Many four-year colleges are populated by people between the ages of 18 and 21 sometimes with a contingent of older students, many of them veterans. Community colleges, on the other hand, routinely have a broader demographic range. The Eagle Times spoke with one RVCC graduate who pursued her degree in order to take the next step in her profession. The other graduate entered college after a gap year and has been accepted into a four-year school.

According to the Community College Research Center of Columbia University, as of fall 2016 there 5.9 million people enrolled at public, two-year colleges. Nearly 3.8 million were part-time and 2.1 were full-time students. This is 36 percent of all undergraduate students in the country. Some people are getting their entire education at a two-year institution and then entering the field of their choice. Others are using the community college as a prelude to completing a four-year degree. While 81 percent of entering community college students indicate they want to earn a bachelor’s degree or higher, only 33 percent of entering students actually transfer to a four-year institution within six years.

Angela Hooper of Claremont has been a LNA (licensed nurse assistant) for 16 years. On the evening of Friday, May 19 at the RVCC commencement ceremony, she received her associates degree in nursing and will now become an RN (registered nurse).

“I’ve always wanted to this,” she said, “but I waited for better timing.” Hooper stood outside the Claremont City Hall on Friday afternoon with her husband, Jake Dole, and their sons, Devon, 14, and Preston, 10.

The nursing program itself takes two years to complete but Hooper took a year of general studies classes at River Valley before starting in on her career curriculum. Much of the nursing student’s education was hands-on. She said that she spent two days per week in clinical studies, working with patients and procedures, and two days per week in the classroom.

As an LNA, Hooper was responsible for taking care of the basic needs of patients, feeding them, bathing them and walking with them. She worked at Mount Ascutney Hospital and Medical Center and also at Historic Homes of Runnemede in Windsor, Vermont.

After graduation, Hooper will start a job as an RN at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Benjamin Drye of Plainfield was out on the Broad Street green, talking to well-wishers, posing for photographs and presumably thinking about his future. In a couple of hours he was going to receive his degree from River Valley Community College. Then he had some thinking to do.

Drye majored in both business management and accounting and will receive associates degrees in both. These are two-year programs, but Drye went through them in three and a half years because he was working at the West Lebanon Price Chopper he while in went to school.

Before he attended went to River Valley, Drye was home-schooled. He took a gap year after finishing all the work for a high school diploma and then applied to college.

He was accepted, “but I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he said, “and I didn’t think I should spend the money going to a four-year school.” So he went to his local community college and applied himself with alacrity. While at RVCC he served as president of the student government association, became of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, and founded the school’s business club.

Drye has once again applied to a four-year institution and once again got in. “I’ve been accepted as a transfer student at Plymouth State College,” he said. “Now I have to make a decision.”

The young man from Plainfield didn’t know it as he chatted and ruminated under the May sunshine, but at the commencement that evening, he was going to receive the 2018 President’s Award. Sometimes getting that kind of affirmation can help you make up your mind.