This content was published: June 12, 2011. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
PCC Prep students take next step in their lives
Photos and Story by Dana Haynes
Leah Rapoza, foreground, laughs with graduate Jasmine Rissonette, background, during Thursday's graduation celebration.
An estimated 84 students walked Thursday at the graduation ceremonies for the PCC Prep Alternative Programs celebration.
PCC Prep is the combination of the college’s alternative programs for high school completion. The wide array of programs help students find high school equivalencies and then move on to college.
An estimated 220 students achieved their GED’s through the PCC program this year, and 56 students graduated through the Gateway to College program. PCC invented the Gateway program, which subsequently has been replicated across the nation.
A wide array of students were rewarded scholarships to move on to college, during Thursday’s event. They included: YES (Youths Empowered to Succeed) graduates Heather Tift, Jasmine Bissonette, Guillermo Francia and Matheas Grau-Michaels; Gatewway gradutates Devon Woznack, Cody Dodd and Diego Mares; and PCC Multicultural Academic Program graduates Maria de Lourdes Hernandez and Jingyi Chen.
Student speakers included Dmitriy Ryabichev, a former MAP student, Jasmine Bissonette of the YES project and Leah Rapoza, who graduated from the Gateway Program and, later this weekend, graduated from Portland State University with a master’s in education.
PCC Prep student Mariana Rodrigues interviews President Preston Pulliams during Thursday's graduation celebration.
About Dana Haynes
Dana Haynes, joined PCC in 2007 as the manager of the Office of Public Affairs, directing the college's media and government relations. Haynes spent the previous 20 years as a reporter, columnist and editor for Oregon newspapers, including ... more »