Record number of graduates at Harper College

A record number of graduates received diplomas Sunday at Harper College's graduation ceremony.

More than 4,232 students - or 399 more than last year's record - earned an associate degree or certificate.

Some of the 600 graduates who attended the ceremony on the Palatine campus, along with their families, used umbrellas for refuge from the sweltering 90-degree heat. They listened to keynote speaker, New York Times columnist and radio and television commentator David Brooks, extol what he called "the ripening virtues," that develop slowly and lead to character and success.

They include, he said, self-control, learning from failure, and organization.

Brooks, who received an honorary degree Sunday, remembered that when he was young, he thought being organized was a sign you were boring and repressed.

"Now, I realize that discipline and organization is the key to everything," he said.

Brooks advised against expecting the kind of instant success inspired by reality television and new stories about the Facebook IPO.

"Unless your name is LeBron James or Mark Zuckerberg or Nas or Drake, you probably won't be a millionaire by the time you're 30. Like most of us, you'll be a grinder. And your progress will come very gradually. Step by step. Decade by decade."

He gave several successful examples of grinders, including Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower, who, he said, was stuck in the same rank in the Army for nearly two decades.

"These people were slowly building strengths and talents that lead to great accomplishment and make for great people."

Two of Harper's graduates are shining examples of that philosophy.

Several minutes before Brooks' speech, Cindy Pokuta, 48, of Palatine, and Juanita Clark, also 48, of Hoffman Estates, stood in line with the rest of the graduates wearing mortar board caps and robes.

Both were getting their associates in applied science and human services, and were the first to graduate from Harper's new Human Services program.

Four years ago, a college degree seemed like a long shot for Pokuta, who began her Harper education three years ago - six months after receiving a lifesaving liver transplant.

"I wasn't supposed to make it," she said. "Literally, at one point, I had 48 hours to live and I was on the organ transplant list for 12 hours and I recovered immediately. And I just knew that I needed to do something else with this great gift that I had gotten."

In three years, Pokuta took 93 credit hours at Harper.

She said her goal is to be a social worker for hospice care. She has already completed an internship at a hospice facility at the Hospice and Palliative Care of Northeastern Illinois in Barrington and continues to do volunteer work for them. She intends to go on to get her master's, which will require another internship.

Pokuta - who has three children, five stepchildren and 15 grandchildren - said there is some sadness mixed with joy in her graduation.

"I'm inspired, excited, (but) it's very bittersweet, because I love Harper. I love the people here," she said. "There has never been a day that I haven't felt absolutely welcome to be here. I never felt like I was the older student. I made some great friendships here. Lifetime friendships."

Clark, who graduated from Truman College in Chicago in 1991, already has a career as a certified nurse's assistant and holds an associate degree in child development.

"I wanted to do something different with working with people, because that's what I like doing. I have worked with children. I have worked with adolescents," said Clark, who works as a certified nurse's assistant in the Alzheimer's/dementia unit at Lexington Health Care in Streamwood.

A mother of three with one grandchild, Clark said she was inspired to return to school by a man who attended college with her years ago when he was 80 years old.

She told herself, "If he can do it, why can't I?"

Pokuta and Clark have been involved in the college's Human Services Club, which was an outgrowth of the new program and involves its members with projects that give back to the community, such as a Habitat for Humanity project in Elgin and Carpentersville.

"I have learned more in two years about just giving back (to the community) than I have my whole life," Pokuta said.