CCCC graduation set for Friday, May 17

Cloud County Community College commencement activities are scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday, May 17 in Arley Bryant Gymnasium on the Concordia campus. The event will recognize 342 graduates from the Concordia and Geary County campuses and outreach locations.

Graduates, family and friends are invited to a reception prior to commencement in the T-Bird Café on the Concordia campus from 3:30-5:30 p.m. on Friday.

The nurses’ pinning ceremony will be at 4 p.m. at the Brown Grand Theatre, downtown Concordia. The public is invited to attend the ceremony.

The Distinguished Alumni Award of the Year will be presented to Tom and Shelly (Nanninga) Hauschel.

Tom Hauschel came to Cloud County in 1983 from Washington, Kan., where he grew up on the family farm. Shelly Hauschel is a native of Axtell, Kan. The two met while taking classes at Cloud County. After graduation in 1985, they both attended Kansas State University, where they both majored in agriculture business. They married in 1987, and have three children: Jake, Cody and Michaela.

Tom spent 18 years working at Ag Processing Inc., in Omaha, Neb., and Shelly ran a home daycare and worked for the local school district. Tom and Shelly currently live in Urbandale, Iowa, where he is the CEO/General Manager of Heartland Co-op, and Shelly is a landscape and wildlife photographer. They spend many weekends on Tom’s family farm in Washington County.

In 2014, they started an endowed scholarship for ag students at Cloud. The Hauschel Family Scholarship has left a lasting impact on many Cloud County ag students, helping them fulfill their academic goals.

Student speakers will include Mason Hays, Concordia campus Student Senate president, and JaelAnn Hoover, Geary County campus Phi Theta Kappa Chapter President.

There will be additional seating in the upper rooms of the gymnasium (UG301-UG303), where the ceremony will also be broadcast. For those unable to attend commencement, the event will be streamed live on the Internet. A link to the broadcast can be found at www.cloud.edu.