News

MHCC Career Fair to offer students job possibilities
By Kelsi McKenzie

The MHCC commencement ceremony (graduation) will be June 13 at 7 p.m. at Earl Klapstein Stadium and preparations can be made by students to make sure they are “applied and supplied.”

The ceremonial cap and gown became available for purchase Thursday at the college bookstore, and students that haven’t applied for graduation can still do so.

“They should apply as soon as possible,” said Peggy Maas, director of admissions, registration and records. “It’s not too late. We advise them to apply two terms ahead, but we’ll still accept their application. They don’t get their degree that night, anyway. So, just the fact that they don’t attend doesn’t mean that they’re not going to receive their degree.”

Maas said students could prepare by buying their cap and gowns early. “The bookstore will sell them every day, Monday through Friday, up until the day of the ceremony. The cap-and-gowns are $26.99 for the basic. Announcements are also on sale, if the students wanted to get some announcements.”

To prepare for the ceremony, Maas said students could attend a rehearsal at 2 p.m. on June 13, five hours before the ceremony. “It only lasts half an hour,” she said.

For students who can’t attend the graduation, Maas said, all of the students would get their degrees in the same way. “They still get their degree mailed to them. We do the checking of the degrees after spring grades start coming in. They’re due June 16, and then we take about four weeks to mail out all the spring degrees.

Even the people who do attend get theirs mailed to them.”

For the graduation ceremony itself, Maas said seating can get crowded.

“There are no tickets required, so the seating for the guests is first-come, first-served. It does get full, and it does get to standing-room only. There’s very limited seating for the disabled and elderly. There’s also some overflow seating in the gymnasium, and they would be watching the ceremony on screen, instead of the live stage.”

Maas said preparations off-stage happen at the beginning of the year, but stage setup happens closer to the ceremony. “We actually start preparing for it in January as far as internal things, setting up work orders, ordering flowers, all that kind of stuff. The physical setup begins Monday the week of the commencement (the week of June 9). It’s a big stage that we have an outside company set up for us. It takes quite a bit of time to have to take precaution to protect the track and the stadium grass. Setting up the chairs takes quite a bit of time. Our custodial facilities does all of that work for us.

“It’s a really fun time,” said Maas. “We have fireworks at the end, and we’ve been good at keeping the ceremony limited on lengthy speeches. The main speech is given by the student body president. There are a few awards given out like the distinguished teaching awards.

“It basically moves along pretty fast, and I think students always have a really good time celebrating,” she said. “Faculty really enjoy it, there’s just a lot of celebration when the students come off the stage. Faculty are there a lot of times to give them handshakes or hugs. It’s really fun.”

The annual GED and Adult High School commencement ceremony will be June 12 at 7 p.m., also in the Earl Klapstein Stadium on the MHCC main campus.