Grad came distance to CCC

CLOVIS - It's not unusual for community college students to follow a long road to graduation, but for most Clovis Community College graduates, that road did not begin in Alaska.

That's the case for Angela Lam, one of 397 CCC graduates set to receive degrees on Friday.

Lam will be receiving a pair of associate's degrees, in liberal arts and business administration, after moving to Portales to live with her grandparents to try something different in her life.

"I was enrolled in a university in Anchorage but I just didn't have the drive or motivation to excel as much as I have here," Lam said.

She said it was quite a culture shock moving to eastern New Mexico from Alaska, where temperatures in the winter hovered near zero.

"I lived in a city that had about 360,000 people," she said. "(Now), I live in Portales and it's like 18,000 people and there's a bunch of cows ... I've lived here for three years now and I haven't gotten used to it," Lam said.

Next up for Lam is Texas Tech University, where she said she plans to study marketing or advertising, an interest dating back to a high school course she took in Alaska.

"I'm excited that I'm getting my associate's but I'm also nervous as to what's to come afterward because a whole new chapter is going to open up for me in my life," Lam said.

Lam got a taste of that work at CCC through a work-study with the marketing department at CCC, where she learned more about design and how to engage with an audience.

"I hung up a lot of posters for a lot of events coming up and I also had an opportunity to design a couple. I advertised for CCC on the radio once; that was a big thing out of my comfort zone," Lam said.

Friday's graduation is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Curry County Events Center, a change of venue for this year's ceremony. The nurses' and radiologic technologists' pinning ceremonies, scheduled for 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. Thursday, respectively, will remain at the Clovis Civic Center like past years.

CCC President Becky Rowley said at the May 1 board of trustees meeting that graduation was moved to the Events Center to allow for a larger crowd.

Bill McCamley, the cabinet secretary for the department of workforce solutions, will give the commencement address, which he told The News will touch on the support students receive from family, friends and school staff along the way to graduation.

"I love graduations. They are so much fun for everyone involved - the students, the parents, the instructors. It's just one of those things in America where you've done what you're supposed to do to make it," McCamley said. "And it's a team process. It's just as important to honor the parents, other family members, instructors, friends, because nobody does anything in a vacuum."