Speakers celebrate success

CLOVIS - The 2019 class of Clovis Community College graduates celebrated success in all its forms during Friday's commencement ceremony at the Curry County Events Center.

"Success is not a linear path that goes straight to your goal. It has ups and downs through trial and error. It comes in many forms along with many achievements, both large and small," said Lindsey Fletcher, who graduated with an associate's of applied science in nursing and was one of two student speakers at the event.

Fletcher, a Portales native, also received her registered nurse's pin during Thursday's pinning ceremony and wants to move on to a job in nursing.

Fletcher told The News that her favorite moments at CCC were simply being with her fellow students from the nursing program in-between the rigorous course work.

"Just talking with all my friends from the program because that's really what keeps you sane," Fletcher said.

The second student speaker, Kathryn Kaspar, elaborated on the theme that CCC's 397 graduates all took different paths to Friday's ceremony.

"My reason for being here is of the 'get my life back on track' sort, and I'll spare you the juicy details, but essentially several years ago life took some pretty nasty shots at me. Things snowballed and everything I thought I knew turned upside down," Kaspar said.

Now with three associates degrees from CCC in hand, Kaspar, 33, told The News that she is pursuing a bachelor's degree in engineering at Eastern New Mexico University with the hopes of eventually landing a job where she can service and make robots.

After moving on from CCC, Kaspar said she will miss the people the most.

"Everyone's really nice, everyone's really welcoming. It's a small community so you kind of know everybody," she said.

Kaspar encouraged the graduates to be proud of their accomplishments and closed her remarks with some life advice as they head out into the world.

"When times get rough, remember to focus on what you need to get by, instead of bending sometimes to unreasonable expectations of others," she said. "You know yourself best so don't let anyone tell you what you need to do to grow. But also, at the same time, don't be afraid to ask for help."

Commencement speaker Bill McCamley, the cabinet secretary for the department of workforce solutions, capped the trio of speeches by encouraging the graduates to continue learning even if they don't plan on setting foot inside a classroom again.

"Keep learning in life. Understand that life is all about learning new things and moving forward, both in your professional lives and your personal lives, it will do you well," he said.