GED grads challenged to continue

By STEVE KADEL Western News Reporter

Lincoln County Campus GED recipients were cheered for their accomplishment and challenged to keep learning during graduation ceremonies last week.

Thirty-eight students received GED certificates - 11 more than last year at the campus. Friends, family members and college staff members gathered May 11 for a two-hour program that ended with celebratory cake and punch along with hugs and a few tears.

Several speakers congratulated friends and family members of the grads as well as the students themselves, saying their help as a support system made the GED pursuit possible.

Lincoln County Campus director Pat Pezzelle went further than that.

"Now it's your turn to be that support person for the next person," he said. "The person in your life who needs to get up early and do the things you did to improve your life - give that person a helping hand."

Pezzelle also urged the grads to pursue more education. He gave a personal example to show how education can lift a person to a better way of life.

Pezzelle said he grew up in a factory town in Pittsburgh. His family couldn't afford milk, so he had water with his Cheerios.

Through education, he had a chance to work in law enforcement and a variety of positions throughout the world.

"My life is better because of education," Pezzelle said. "Here I am. I no longer live in the housing projects of Pittsburgh."

He said attaining a GED isn't enough.

"Don't stop here. Think where you want to be in five years and what it will take to get there. When the door opens, step in. Never be satisfied."

Randy Guinard-Bacon, a former GED and Lincoln County Campus associate program graduate, described her efforts to escape from a life of dead-ends jobs.

Guinard-Bacon said she dropped out of school at age 14, pregnant, and became a

stay-at-home mom.

She married at 17, but was divorced a week later - pregnant with her second child. Guinard-Bacon waited tables and painted houses to get by.

"It was pretty tough," she said.

But with determination, she got her GED and an associate's degree. Then she set her sights on a college degree, which she eventually earned at the University of Montana. That has given Guinard-Bacon choices in life that never were available before.

"We - all of us - create our opportunities by being involved in the community and getting more education," she said.

The GED course, or General Educational Development tests, include seven and a half hours of exams on language arts, writing; language arts, reading; social studies; science; and math.

Casey Clausen, Zachary Epperson, Kelly Pease and Jarad Phoenix graduated with the distinction of having made a perfect score on one or more sections of the test.

Other graduates included W. Michael Armstrong, Makayla Auge, Daniel Benson, Blake Canavan, Danielle Caulboy, Marion Chapel, Benjamin Cleek, Jeremy Tristan Dlug, Brandon Duncan, Eric Egnor, Kimberly Hake, Issac Hanneman, Olen Keller, Allan "Buck" Kidder, Sandi Lance, Summer Merrill, Michael McBride, Courtney Neils, Courtney Stringfellow, James Stringfellow, Nicholas Thorsfeldt, Annett Wendlandt, Pam Winter and John Yielding.

Ten other graduates declined to have their names published, college officials said.

LCC instructor Jerry Wandler made closing comments at the ceremony. He, too, congratulated the students for setting a goal and achieving it.

"You have a good foundation to build upon in education," he said. "You can move forward from where you are today."

But Wandler also introduced some real-world reality into the festive occasion by saying that federal money for the nationwide GED program is in jeopardy. Proposals call for a two-thirds cut in funding, he said.

"One way you might help change that is to get in touch with your local congressman or senator," Wandler said. "I encourage the graduates to do one more assignment and send an e-mail.

"Others who come after you will appreciate it."