Nearly 300 students in North Central Michigan College’s Class of 2026 earned their diploma this spring, and their achievement was celebrated during the college’s commencement ceremony on Friday, May 8.
“All of these graduates have exhibited intelligence, resilience, drive, focus and teamwork in getting to this day,” said college president Dr. David Roland Finley. “We’re pleased to call them Timberwolves. As you might guess, we’re extremely proud of this year’s pack.”
Some notable statistics for the Class of 2026 include:
Finley added that 53 graduates hail from Petoskey.
“Gaylord is very close behind at 49 graduates,” he said. “The next three hometowns with the highest number of grads are Boyne City, Charlevoix and East Jordan. Alanson, Cheboygan, Harbor Springs and Pellston are very close behind.”
During the ceremony, former trustee Phil Millard received an honorary degree of Community Service. The keynote speaker was Frank Ettawageshik, a former chairman of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians who has worked for decades in environmental stewardship, tribal sovereignty and education.
Ettawageshik urged graduates to think of themselves as “citizens of the world.”
“We’re all family members, we’re citizens of our communities, our states and our nations, but we’re also citizens of the world,” he said. “You look at the Earth, and the Earth is just this one little ball in the middle of this vast cosmos, this huge space. This is our home. And we need to think about how as we’re citizens, we’re citizens not only of our communities and our nations but we’re citizens of the world as well. And we have to deal with ways that we can all bring things together.”
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: NCMC salutes Class of 2026 during graduation
Reporting by Jillian Fellows, The Petoskey News-Review / The Petoskey News-Review
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
