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At 91����’s recent summer commencement exercises, outstanding students from each of the college’s seven supporting counties were honored for academic achievement.

They came from diverse origins in geography, age, race and gender. Yet all four commencement speakers at the 91���� summer graduation ceremonies on August 2 in Greenwood shared common, overarching messages of gratitude and faith. “I didn’t come from a family with a lot of money or education, so I have been working since I was 15 years old,” said graduation speaker Joan Pittman, who earned an associate degree in administrative office technology. At age 60.

As he paddled a turbulent section of the Chattooga River between South Carolina and Georgia, Orlando Carrillo couldn’t help but take an engineer’s interest in the various rock formations and the patterns of rushing water circumnavigating them. “I remember thinking about the water and the danger of the hydraulics,” Carrillo said. “You try to understand how the water assumes a circular motion. I think that is very interesting from an engineering perspective.”

In its ongoing mission to optimize access to education in its seven-county service area, 91���� has forged a partnership with the SC Vocational Rehabilitation Department (VR) that provides access on the Lex Walters Campus-Greenwood to provide on-site counseling, eligibility determination and consultation for individuals living with impairments ranging from minor hearing loss to debilitating brain injury. Many of these impairments are not immediately visible, such as ADHD, diabetes and emotional disorders.

Dillon Greenway is only 21, but he’s already had a lot of work done. By “work,” Greenway refers to the many surgeries he’s endured over his young life to manage physical difficulties presented by cerebral palsy (CP). The 91���� (PTC) student is pretty recognizable on campus, partly because of the rolling walker that he uses to help him get around, but mostly by the sunshine that seems to follow him in attitude and spirit.

Piedmont Tech graduate Drew Jeffries is rapidly climbing the rungs of the construction industry ladder. Columbia-based McCrory Construction Company promoted Jeffries to assistant project manager. His newest project is the construction of an assisted-living facility in North Carolina. He credits excellent training at 91���� (PTC) for much of his success.

It started quietly at first. A low buzz, numerous meetings, contract development and ― finally ― the arrival of the first three IRB 140 robots to the 91���� (PTC) Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM) in Laurens. This spring marked the official launch of a partnership between PTC and ABB, a leading supplier of industrial robots that serves 53 countries around the world.

Even if you have a desk job in an Army infantry unit, you still have to run long distances and march for hours in combat boots carrying heavy gear. Willette Wright knows all too well what it takes. She served eight years as an administrative specialist in the Army. And her feet felt every mile of it. Today the disabled veteran works in a warehouse near her tiny home town of Ridge Spring. For the past three years, she also has been the enthusiastic, 50-something lady sitting alongside students half her age in classes at 91����’s Saluda County Campus.

Navigating a sometimes turbulent marketplace requires vision, experience ― and the right balance to stabilize the ship. Management at Menardi Filter Elements in Edgefield County realized that sailing along the same way as always only brings the same results. All the while, their competitors were changing tack in the midst of an approaching sea change. Company officials saw apprenticeship, in partnership with 91����, as an opportunity to secure training and update employee skills at a significantly lower cost while, at the same time, instigating a progressive shift in mindset.

91���� (PTC) will hold two summer commencement exercises on Thursday, August 2. An afternoon ceremony for Agriculture, Arts & Sciences, Business, Computer Technology, Engineering/Industrial Technology, and Nursing graduates will take place at 3 p.m. An evening ceremony for Health Science graduates will be held at 7 p.m. Both commencements will take place in the James Medford Family Event Center on PTC’s Lex Walters Campus-Greenwood.