By J.D. Rottweiler, Ph.D.
Nearly 200 graduating students and their supporters piled into cars Thursday and Friday for commencement ceremonies unlike any other in Cochise College history. With a desire to help students celebrate and also observe pandemic protocols, the college hosted drive-through ceremonies at which students received a somewhat personalized experience as faculty and staff lined the parade route to cheer their accomplishments. The unusual arrangement was carried out at both the Douglas and Sierra Vista campuses.
Commencement always celebrates the grit and resilience of students who invest in themselves and overcome challenges in order to increase their future earning potential and quality of life. Even more obvious this year is society’s need for these graduates, who in their professional lives are the very people who solve imminent problems. It’s often a community college graduate who responds first to an emergency, cares for the ill, secures computer networks, keeps the peace, fixes your air conditioning, and literally puts out fires. Our graduates have proven they’re up to these tasks and others!
Student speaker and cybersecurity graduate Angela Moretz pointed out that students don’t get to this point alone. She thanked faculty who explained, motivated, challenged, and opened doors of opportunity. Angela found a second family in the cybersecurity program. Her circle of friends grew, and in those friends, she found the courage to keep going. She was inspired by the resilience of all of those around her, who adapted and persevered, rather than giving up. She believes the odds did not favor success in cybersecurity for an extroverted mother of three bouncing from one family emergency to another while also juggling school, volunteering and crying on the shoulders of faculty. But her classmates motivated her to keep pushing. As she so eloquently explained, “I am not the only one in this graduating class wondering how on earth I made it through this. We have learned to extend grace and mercy toward one another because these years have been crazy on everyone! We are resilient and just as unrelenting as what we have lived through. So I thank you for inspiring me, for making these years easier, for reminding me that even a wife and mom who had everything working against her can do what feels like the impossible.”
The college also highlights alumni during commencement. In a ceremony without seats, the role of alumni marshal shifted from usher to cheerleader. This year’s marshals, Lawana Diffie (‘72) and Melany Edwards-Barton (08), distributed alumni decals and reminders for the graduating class to keep in touch. Theirs, too, are stories of resilience and determination.
A community-focused resident with deep roots in Douglas, Lawana Diffie has ridden the wave of the computer industry since the early 1980s. She got her start with Woods Manufacturing and worked in law enforcement for a time before joining Italian business machines company Olivetti, where she stayed until a corporate buyout took her into the professional education arena. She was involved in writing the first A+ certification criteria for Honeywell that became an industry standard for entry-level technicians. She set up the DataWiz expanded offices in the Embarcadero One, in the San Francisco financial district, for the first authorized Microsoft training company outside of Microsoft University. She returned to her hometown in the late 1990s to care for a family member and, with her son, opened Two Flags Computer, which offers computer repair, administrative services and technology assistance. She’s also volunteered with many government commissions and community groups, most notably the Douglas Veteran’s Memorial Committee, which raised all of the funds to build the memorial.
In her role as chief executive officer of the Sierra Vista Area Chamber of Commerce, Melany Edwards-Barton is often seen organizing or attending community events, including those at her alma mater. A mother and gold star wife who spent more than 15 years “married to the military,” Melany was an adult when she enrolled at Cochise. She was president of the Phi Theta Kappa international honor society, was named to the All-Arizona Academic Team and received a scholarship to complete her bachelor’s at Northern Arizona University, where she graduated magna cum laude in 2010 with a degree in business administration. She holds her Cochise experiences dear, including that time she was the student representative on the committee to hire the new college president, yours truly! Melany has a real estate license and more than 20 years experience in business leadership with non-profits, for-profits and volunteer organizations. Prior to becoming CEO of the chamber, she was a member who co-chaired the Military Affairs Committee. She is a member of numerous real estate organizations and serves as a business advisor for Professional Women of Excellence.
Please join me in congratulating our recent graduates, alumni marshals, and our entire faculty and staff for their determination and persistence. It’s been a year of highs and lows, but we made it together, and it certainly has been memorable!
J.D. ROTTWEILER, Ph.D., is president of Cochise College. Contact him at jdr@cochise.edu.