From the Road: Journal Entries from the Campaign Trail

Scott Delivers Commencement Address in Hastings
2006-06-20

On Friday, June 9, Scott delivered the 2006 commencement address to for the Hastings Literacy Program.

Each year, working in conjunction with Central Community College, the Hastings Literacy Program offers individuals of all ages the classes to help them prepare for the test leading to a Graduate Education Diploma (GED). Since it was established in 1942, the GED test has help as many as 13 million adults to get a fresh start on their careers. It has helped to lift families out of poverty, and to set them on a path to learning and achievement that very often will continue from one generation to the next, for a long time to come.

Over the course of the last year, almost 100 people successfully completed their GED in Hastings, many of them studying in the evening while working other jobs during the daytime. More than 20 of these graduates and their families attended the commencement ceremony Friday.

“Graduate school was not easy for me,” Kleeb told those gathered in the Cottonwood Room of the Central Community College Campus Center. “There wasn’t a single day that I didn’t wonder if they had made a mistake letting me into that school. But, in the end, I always returned to one thing: This is my life, my one chance on this earth, and I must do everything I can with it.

“Each of you made this same determination,” Scott continued. “And many of you faced down tremendous challenges to get where you are today.”

Scott pointed to the example of Bethany Van Winkle, a graduate who was chosen to give remarks as part of the Friday ceremony.

Bethany is a single mom, a mother of four. She made the decision last February to go after her GED. Since then, she’s logged 74 hours in the classroom, preparing for this rigorous test. Jesse Alber, Director of the Hastings Literacy Program, said before the ceremony Friday that he suspects Bethany put in many more hours outside the classroom, in spite of the fact that she was contending with the many responsibilities that come with being a mother of for young children.

Jake Hodgdon, another graduate, is 17 years old. He was scheduled to deploy for U.S. Army Basic Training within just a few days of the graduation ceremony.

“There many parts of this world where men and women are not free to pursue their education,” Scott said, addressing Mr. Hodgdon. “And there are people in this world today who seek to take away from us our sacred right to live free, and to pursue happiness, and to be educated. And so to Jake I want to say: thank you for believing in this country. Thank you for defending this country in its time of need. I wish you Godspeed, and a safe return.”

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