Degrees Of Excellence Community College Grads Benefit From Higher Re-Education

Steve Pitts saved his career and found his love by going back to college.

Pitts graduated Wednesday from Spokane Community College, one of 2,500 students getting certificates and degrees this week from the city’s community colleges.

For the past several years, he’s been an emergency helicopter paramedic. He needed to upgrade his skills by becoming a respiratory therapist.

“It was a good move,” he said. “Long term, this will be a great benefit to me.”

While at college, he met his fiancee, Ruth Snyder, who is studying to become a respiratory therapist, too.

Going back to college wasn’t a huge step. Pitts, 38, got his paramedic training at SCC in the 1980s, so he was familiar with the pressures of classroom work.

The community colleges cater to working adults. They offer classes day and night, and allow skilled workers like Pitts to challenge classes and graduate faster.

Pitts took tests and got credit for a number of required classes, reducing the amount of course work by nearly a year, he said.

The Community Colleges of Spokane are holding a series of commencements this week, in part to shorten the time people have to sit still for speeches and names to be announced.

Girard Clark, a trustee for the colleges, told graduates at the Johnson Sports Center Wednesday, “You worked hard. You are most deserving.”

Patti Jo McGrath, the student speaker at Wednesday’s commencement, said graduates may be going to college for different reasons, but they are all striving for success.

“Go out and be confident in what you have studied to become,” she said.

State Rep. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, told graduates getting a degree is a tribute to the entire family.

In many cases, more than one family member is enrolled. One husband-wife team is graduating this afternoon at Spokane Falls Community College.

Allan and Ginger Pennie said they enrolled in college to enrich their lives after raising four children. They each earned associate degrees in science at SFCC, and continued studying liberal arts so they could transfer to a four-year college.

“This has been an inspiration to our children. They are all in college or have finished college,” Ginger Pennie said.

The wisdom that comes with age has been an asset in the classroom, with the Pennies sharing some of their knowledge with younger students.

“You’ve got to keep up with these kids,” Ginger Pennie said.

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