Blumenthal hails NCC graduates

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal surprised the crowd of family and friends gathered under cloudless skies to watch Norwalk Community College's largest graduating class in its 50-year history receive their degrees on Thursday, May 17.

"When I look across this crowd, what I see is truly the American dream," Blumenthal said. "Men and women who have overcome great odds to be here at this point of tremendous accomplishment. You are at the forefront of where American education should be and will be going in the future."

Blumenthal flew in from Washington, D.C., to attend the commencement ceremony and told the crowd how he often boasted about NCC and its graduates in the Senate.

"In community colleges, in places like this, the greatest generations of our country will be forged," Blumenthal said, bidding the graduates godspeed and good luck.

NCC President David Levinson said the 831 eligible candidates for graduation were a 25 percent increase over last year's class and "by far the best class ever."

The culture of diversity is one of NCC's key strengths, Levinson said. He too bragged of NCC's achievements, including having students from more than 85 nations, with 30 percent of the Class of 2012 born outside the United States and the majority non-white. NCC is the second-largest Connecticut community college with 6,740 students and its appreciation of diversity has recently earned the school a designation as a Hispanic-serving institution by the Department of Education.

Frequently addressed were the unique obstacles NCC students face, language and economic barriers being the highest hurdles among them.

"The most difficult part was working and taking classes at the same time," said Anne Didelot, 23, a Stamford resident majoring in art with a focus on photography. She supports herself working at a supermarket and said she was fortunate enough to have her tuition paid in full.

More than 75 percent of the class were employed throughout their time at NCC, an achievement Levinson applauded in conjunction with more than half of students having a dependent spouse, child or parent.

For some students the realities of post-graduation and specifically, post-graduation debt can be daunting.

"I was so nervous about paying back loans," said Kyle Zeidler, 21, of Milford. "I was so ignorant about the process."

He admitted faculty calmed his fears of debt and they helped guide him through the bureaucratic chaos that can be the student loan process.

Zeidler graduated with an associate's degree in liberal arts and sciences. His experience at NCC has been eye-opening and is just the first step in his academic career.

"I think the fact that so many people are here who are in the same boat, trying to save money, you get a great experience," he said.