Photo by Hilary Wilson, courtesy of WVNCC The 2024 graduating class of West Virginia Northern Community College held its commencement Thursday evening at WesBanco Arena.

WHEELING – Douglass Harrison, president and CEO of WVU Medicine Wheeling and Reynolds Memorial hospitals, told the 2024 graduating class of West Virginia Northern Community College on Thursday to cherish this moment. Hang your degree on the wall, he said, and be proud, not just of the journey to this point but to the journey ahead.

“Look at your diploma often as a reminder of what you accomplished,” he said during commencement ceremonies at WesBanco Arena, “but also look at it as what is yet to come … the essence of commencement. This piece of paper will form a foundation for you for the rest of your life.”

Harrison told the 234 graduating students — who were eligible to receive 254 certificates and degrees — that gaining the education they received at WVNCC would benefit them for the rest of their lives. Whether their Northern degree was catapulting them toward another level of education or preparing them for the working world, their experience would afford them career growth and economic mobility.

“We continue to hear, over-and-over again in this country, about the devaluing of formal education — ‘You don’t need a degree to be successful,'” he said. “I wholeheartedly disagree. Sure, some exceptionally gifted musicians, athletes and/or entrepreneurs might succeed without a degree … but the rest of we mortals will greatly benefit from our college degrees.

“The value of education can be felt at an individual level, a community level and across the country,” Harrison continued. “This country was built on a solid foundation of education and for those who made an investment in themselves, the payback was immense, not only in personal gain, but their community became stronger and the country became stronger. Do not let anyone devalue your education, in fact, prove them wrong, lead by example and show them the value of your education.”

WVNCC Daniel Mosser discussed the diverse makeup of this graduating class with those in attendance Thursday. He pointed out one graduate who was 56 years old, and another, Magnolia High School senior and WVNCC Early Entrance enrollee Alexis Cooley, who was the evening’s youngest graduate

The Class of 2024’s valedictorian, Connie Burris, was another of the non-traditional graduates in the class. Graduating with an associate in applied science Board of Governors degree, alongside certificates in medical billing and coding and administrative medical assisting, Burris was graduating alongside her daughter America, who earned a nursing degree.

“Les Brown said, ‘You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream,'” Burris said. “I think this embodies Northern’s philosophy. Some of you are about to embark on adulthood and some of us have been there for a while.”

She offered the entire graduating class some words of advice as they embarked on their new journeys: To be one of value, one must recognize that everyone has value. Have integrity. Be humble. Live generously, and be forgiving.

In closing, Burris held up a pencil and said Thursday’s graduates shared many similarities with it.

“The sharpening pain the pencil feels only makes it better for use,” she said. “The challenges you face will make you stronger. The pencil can correct its mistakes. You will make mistakes, Learn from them. It’s what’s inside the pencil that leaves a mark. You all have God-given gifts and a purpose. But the pencil will only be useful if it allows itself to be guided by the hand that holds it.

“Harry S. Truman said, ‘It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts,'” she continued. “We’re about to receive degrees and certificates validating what we have learned here at Northern. Never stop learning.”