The Bermuda College marked another dramatic milestone when more than 1,000 people attended its 30th Annual Commencement ceremony in which 129 students graduated.

College president Dr. Duranda Greene pointed up the significance of the event when she congratulated the 2008 class, telling them they had the distinction of being the 30th class graduated since the inception of the institution in 1974.

"Thirty years is traditionally known as a generation span, a step over and into new experiences and new ways of doing things," said Dr. Greene.

And as the president theorised, it was instantly obvious to one setting foot on the campus that a ceremony unlike any others in the past was in the offing. There seemed to be an air of anticipation that was inordinately electric. A new grandeur alone was created just by configuring an east-west setting for the proceedings rather than the previous north-south facing.

Those elements could not escape observers such as this writer who over the years has covered countless graduations at the College as a television news director, as a newspaper journalist, then as a parent. It was always awe-inspiring standing amidst the music and cheers for the arrival of the academic procession comprising faculty, honorary fellows, board of governors, the chairman's party and the graduating class. It was a different story this year processing, being one of five freshmen inductees into the College's Company of Honorary Fellows.

Bermuda College is traditionally the institution that bestows the appropriate associate degree, diploma and certificate status on deserving students in the divisions of Applied Science & Technology, Business Administration & Hospitality, Liberal Arts and the Centre for Professional and Career Education (PACE).

There was something distinctive about the 129 students comprising the class of 2008. It incorporated the first cohort of students from the College for Working Adults programme, which the College launched in 2006.

The programme is geared to working adults who seek an associate degree, but due to work or family commitments cannot attend classes on a full-time basis. Instead, classes are attended a few evenings each week and on the weekend, enabling them to complete their degree in roughly the same time as a student attending the College on a full-time basis.

Chair of the Division of Business Administration & Hospitality, Mrs. Georgina Graham, said: "The majority of those graduates had done roughly three semesters a year . . . it's a wonderful testimony to their hard work and commitment that they've been able to achieve this in such a short space of time."

The College for Working Adults was the initiative of Dr. Greene, said Mrs. Graham. It fulfils the community college mandate of providing access and opportunity to any student who has the desire to learn.

Vice-president and Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Larita Alford, concurred with Mrs. Graham, saying: "We no longer accommodate just the traditional student who comes out of the high school, joins us for two years and then moves on.

"Today, we have multiple entrance streams, and multiple exits, meaning that every student who enrolls with us is not necessarily looking to graduate with an associate degree, but who nevertheless will graduate, having completed coursework, and or having gained the requisite credentials and qualifications to go where they want to go, and to succeed at whatever it is that they've always dreamed of doing. That's what we're here for, and that's our mission - setting Bermuda's students on the paths to success. "

Our pictures, courtesy of Government, show the graduates, faculty and the overall setting inside the big tent on the campus field. Above right is College president Dr. Duranda Greene.