Outgoing president of Northland Community and Technical College Anne Temte took part in her last graduation commencement ceremony Friday in the Chester Fritz Auditorium in Grand Forks.
There were 781 students eligible for certificates, diplomas of degrees, 513 of whom were from the East Grand Forks campus. The campus in Thief River Falls held commencement the day prior.
At the ceremony, Temte passed on advice she had received from her mother and told students to be honest and think critically. She also thanked those who had supported the graduates on their journey.
"This is a passage into a new phase of my life just like graduation is for our graduates," she said.
Temte announced in 2014 her intention to retire after serving as the college's president for nine years. She will be replaced by Dennis Bona of Kellogg Community College in Michigan.
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"I do not view my pending departure as retirement, but rather, as a commencement," Temte wrote in her university blog post Tuesday and reiterated at commencement. "Like our students, I will leave Northland with optimism for the future and energy for new opportunities and adventures."
This year's spring graduating class was 12 percent smaller than the class of 2013 according NCTC's website.
NCTC offers a variety of career and technical programs and commencement guest speaker Grand Forks Fire Chief Peter O'Neill told students he was excited to see them dominate the workforce of the future.
"I will never be accused of being a visionary but I do know one thing about the future; I am standing in front of it," he said as the audience began to applaud. "You are the future."
