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MCC Daily Tribune

This Season of Thanksgiving

Selma, Mark, Arlene, and Lloyd.

Their MCC stories are why, in this season of Thanksgiving, I thank you.

At last week's Salute to Excellence, these inspiring alumni shared their stories and their talents. Their journeys are remarkable yet familiar:

  • A refugee from a war-torn country makes her way to MCC with her life savings of $500 and a dream of an education--she begins this dream with a nursing degree from MCC and doesn't stop until she earns her doctorate.
  • A young man scrimps and saves to pay for his MCC classes, eating boxes of macaroni and cheese made with only water; an MCC professor helps him land a job as a draftsman that leads to his owning his own company.
  • A mother begins her third attempt at college at MCC, knowing that if she can pass Chemistry, she can become a nurse. She can, she does, and in doing so, doubles her income overnight, enabling her to support her family and give back by building a hospice home.
  • A teen is lost at MCC until the director of CSTEP sees something incredible in him and pushes him to see it, too. There is much more: he excels in the sciences, going on to medical school, and becoming a leading transplant surgeon.

You know these stories and so many others. You know their beginnings, their middles, their stops and restarts, their empowering conclusions. You know these stories because every day, you work alongside our students writing and rewriting these stories, changing their endings, making them better, making them stronger.

Selma, Mark, Arlene, and Lloyd.

They are why we are all here.

Thank you.

Anne Kress
Office of the President
11/19/2018