by Yelena Mandenberg
 The first part of Kingsborough’s annual 43rd commencement ceremony was the Kingsborough annual awards ceremony, which took place the night before graduation, on June 12, 2008.
The ceremony started around 7 PM in the PAC building. Over 100 students won awards this year for various academic, service and leadership achievements.
President Regina Peruggi was out first to greet the students and families there.
She talked about how amazing it is that Kingsborough students come from 120 different countries and how different we all are, but all Kingsborough students share the KCC experience.
All the students there that night excel in something and use their abilities and potential to the fullest.
She also offered some advice to those students, “to those of you who have the ability to excel, I strongly urge you to reach out – and pass it on.”
The ceremony lasted about two hours and awards were for everything from certificates of recognition, to bronze, silver and gold student service awards to special service awards (given to one or two students from every department).
Wave scholarships were also given out to 20 lucky students, presented by Dean Toback.
The second part of Kingsborough’s commencement ceremonies, was, of course, graduation.
Crowds of students and proud families gathered around the stage outside the MAC to celebrate Kingsborough Community College’s 43rd annual commencement on June 13, 2008.
The ceremony officially began at 10:45.
The music was supplied by The Brooklyn Wind Ensemble. A number of speakers adressed the crowd.
There were judges, City Council members, and government officials.
The list included well-known names such as Senator Chuck Schumer, Congressman Anthony D. Wiener and our own Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz, as well as many others.
Most of the speakers told the students of their own very inspiring success stories and gave the same advice.
They all stressed the importance of education, to which the graduates cheered in agreement.
Kingsborough alum Dr. Richard J. Maraia also addressed the graduating class and gave the commencement address.
Maraia is a Brooklyn native who enrolled in Kingsborough after having a rough time with high school. He is now in the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) where he was awarded tenure and is a senior investigator and chief of the Section on Molecular and Cell Biology, directing a team of ten researchers. Dr. Maraia also serves as a captain in the U.S. Public Health Service.
Senator Chuck Schumer gave the class a gift: he passed a bill that would make students first year tuition tax deductible for families who make under $200,000. He also gave the students very helpful and encouraging advice. He said, “try to find a job you love to do. You have to look forward to going back to work every Monday.” Schumer told the class his success story, going from working in a copy machine store (making copies the old fashioned way) to changing his major several times before finally becoming senator of New York.
Marty Markowitz has always been a favorite speaker at many graduations and it is obvious he is very good at what he does. The graduates screamed and cheered during his speech. He told the graduates to always be proud of being from Brooklyn, as well as telling the crowd the story of how he met his wife right here on the beach at Kingsborough. “Some of you, no matter what you do, it will be a slam dunk! In life you can wait for things to happen or make them happen!”
The valedictorian was Michael P. Blackman, 43 years old. He came to America from Trinidad in 1994 and received his A.S. in Business Administration and is graduating with a 4.00 GPA. He is an honor student, a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and was employed with State Farm Insurance for the past 11 years.
Graduation is always an inspiring event. Many of the graduates were first in their families to get degrees, many had to struggle with jobs and their own families to make it up on the podium and receive their diploma. With so many students graduating with honors, awards, and excellent GPAs, this commencement ceremony was indeed a moment of pride for KCC. As Marty Markowitz said during his speech, “How sweet it is! This is NYC, this is where you can make it anywhere!”
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