Cape Cod Community College Holds 57th Commencement

HYANNIS – Another academic year at Cape Cod Community College is in the books and with it, another class of graduating students earned their degrees on Thursday.

Donning caps and gowns, a total of 568 students received degrees and certificates at the 57^th Cape Cod Community College Commencement ceremony, held at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis.

“This is the best day of the year. Cape Cod Community College Commencement Day is the best day of the year,” said CCCC Director of Marketing Patrick Stone.

“It’s inspiring, it’s fun to have so many graduating students celebrating the end of their journey here, all of their hard work and everything that’s gone into it. Every student has an interesting story and they’ve all taken an interesting path to get here. It’s not easy for anybody, so to be here around the energy, of not just the graduates but their families and friends who are here to support them, it makes it the best day of the year.”

Dr. John Silvanus Wilson, Jr., Senior Advisor to the President at Harvard University, delivered the 2019 Commencement Address. Wilson is the former head of President Barack Obama’s Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and is also the former President of Morehouse College.

Yarmouth Police Chief Frank Frederickson and Addiction Treatment Center of New England CEO Matthew Dolan were honored as the College’s Alumni of the Year.

Chief Frederickson, who graduated from CCCC in 1979, is in his 40th year of service for the Yarmouth Police Department. He is a three-time “Office of the Year” recipient and serves as a member of the College’s Criminal Justice Advisory Board.

Dolan recently began his new role as CEO for ATC of New England, previously serving as Director of Community Affairs for River Oaks Treatment Center in Tampa, Florida. After graduating from CCCC in 2015, he transferred to UMass-Amherst and obtained his Bachelor’s degree in 2016. In 2018, Dolan was accepted into the Doctoral of Behavioral Health program at Arizona State University.

“What’s great is that so many of our graduates are from the Cape and from the region and so many of our graduates stay here,” said Stone.

“So, this is really sort of indicative of what you hear about people going out into the community who talk to people and hear that they’re a Cape Cod Community College graduate, this is them. This is them finishing their journey here.”

By TIM DUNN, CapeCod.com News Center 

Below is the list of students receiving degrees: