Wenatchee Valley College graduation and nurses pinning ceremonies

Media Contacts: Libby Siebens, community relations executive director, 509.682.6436 (Mon. – Thurs.), Donte Quinine, student programs director, 509.682.6860, or Evelyn Morgan-Rallios, Omak campus administrative assistant, 509.422.7806

Juana Bordas (left), Wenatchee campus commencement speaker, and Jack Nisbet (right), Omak campus commencement speaker.

 

Wenatchee Valley College commencement exercises are scheduled for Friday, June 13, for the Wenatchee campus and Saturday, June 14, for the Omak campus. The high school completion graduations will be included in the ceremonies. The nurses pinnings will be held June 13 for the Wenatchee campus and June 14 for the Omak campus.

The Wenatchee commencement ceremony will begin at 7 p.m. in the Town Toyota Center. The Omak campus commencement will begin at 1 p.m. in the Omak Performing Arts Center.

The Wenatchee campus nurses pinning for completion of the registered nursing certificate and associate degrees of nursing will take place at 1 p.m. on June 13 at the Town Toyota Center. The Omak campus capping and pinning ceremony will begin at 3 p.m. on June 14 in the Omak Performing Arts Center.

Motivational speaker and author Juana Bordas will give the commencement address "Honoring Our Past, Embracing Our Future" for the Wenatchee campus. Bordas emigrated to the U.S. from Nicaragua and was the first in her family to go to college. She learned leadership from her parents, as well as a desire to give back and to help other Latinos and Latinas find their place in society. After college, she joined the Peace Corps and received the U.S. Peace Corps' Franklin Williams Award.

Bordas is the founder of Denver's Mi Casa Women's Center, which is recognized as a national model for women's empowerment. She is also founding president of the National Hispana Leadership Institute and the Circle of Latina Leadership. She is president of Mestiza Leadership International, a company that focuses on leadership, diversity and organizational change.

Bordas's book Salsa, Soul and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age won the International Latino Book Award for leadership in 2008. Her most recent book, The Power of Latino Leadership, was released in 2013. She served as advisor to Harvard's Hispanic Journal on Public Policy, as board vice chair of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, and as a trustee of the International Leadership Association. She received an honorary doctorate from Union Institute in 2009.

Spokane author Jack Nisbet will give the commencement address at the Omak campus. Nisbet is a teacher, naturalist, and author of several books that explore the human and natural history of the Intermountain West. Purple Flat Top and Singing Grass Burning Sage are illustrated explorations of the flora and fauna on the dry side of the Cascades. His essay book Visible Bones won awards from the Washington State Library Association and The Seattle Times.

Nisbet has produced two books detailing the travels of Northwest fur agent and geographer David Thompson. In addition, Nisbet and his wife have curated a museum exhibit based on David Douglas's journeys through the region. The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest was named by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association as one of their 2010 Books of the Year.

President's Medals, Academic Achievement Awards, WVC Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year and the Omak campus Most Supportive Partner are among the awards that will be presented during the college ceremonies.

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Wenatchee Valley College enriches North Central Washington by serving educational and cultural needs of communities and residents throughout the service area. The college provides high-quality transfer, liberal arts, professional/technical, basic skills and continuing education for students of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds. Visit our website, www.wvc.edu.