1,443 Students Graduate Rockland Community College

RAMAPO — More than 1,400 students received degrees today from Rockland Community College at its 54th Commencement Ceremony in the Eugene Levy Fieldhouse on Sunday.

The 1,443 total graduates include the classes of May ’14 (846), December ’13 (293) and August ’13 (304).

ABC Chief Correspondent Byron Pitts, an award winning journalist, news anchor and the author of Step Out On Nothing: How Family and Faith Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges (2009) was scheduled to address the graduates, with student speaker Edrick Sulistio representing the Class of 2014. However, Pitts could not attend because of an international assignment in Nigeria. Filling in for him, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, and U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, D-Rockland/Westchester, addressed the graduates.

Growing up in Indonesia, international student Edrick Sulistio aspired to attend college in the United States since he was 10 years old. Learning of RCC’s renowned M/TS Honors Program from family members living in Rockland, Sulistio’s dreams took shape as he prepared himself academically at the rigorous Singapore School PIK in Jakarta.

Now 17, as he graduates from RCC’s Honors Program with a degree in Liberal Arts: Math & Science, Sulistio is poised to excel in his next round of challenges as he pursues his long-range career goal in medicine by majoring in science (either biology, chemistry or neuroscience) at Cornell, Johns Hopkins or Brown University.

His numerous accomplishments at RCC include serving in student government as a freshman and sophomore senator, president of the international Phi Theta Kappa honor society and the UNICEF Club, and full membership in the national science honor society Beta Beta Beta. Sulistio appreciates the dedicated faculty and the strong science foundation provided at RCC and offers particular gratitude to Dr. Thomas Butler, Dr. Adessa Butler, and Professor Saeed Safaie for their stimulating and highly professional curriculum, as well as to Janelle Santiago and Dr. Roger Davis for the mentoring they provided.

The graduation ceremonies also included a messages from Rockland County Executive Ed Day, R-New City.

Republished: Nyack Free Press