President of Harper College Ken Ender and former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan walk in with the students during Saturday's commencement.
Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
Harper College welcomed former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as its commencement speaker at a Saturday morning ceremony occasionally accompanied by rain.
Duncan is managing partner at Emerson Collective, an organization dedicated to creating job and life opportunities for disconnected youth through work in education, immigration reform, the environment and other social justice initiatives.
Harper President Ken Ender said in a news release that the college has worked hard to increase its graduation rate, which has jumped from 14.8 percent in 2009 to a record 28.4 percent in 2016 since tracking began in 1998.
"We measure our success not by the number of students who come to us, but by the number of students who finish what they start," he said.
The college's advancement rate, which also takes into account students who transferred or continued to enroll at Harper after three years, climbed to 69.6 percent in 2016, he said.
Those listening to commencement speaker Arne Duncan, former education secretary, on Saturday at Harper College's commencement included Angela David of Rolling Meadows, who earned an Associate in Applied Science degree.
Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
Graduates of the 49th annual commencement at William Rainey Harper College got a little rain soaked as the celebration kicked off including Nicholas Cimaglia, 20, Melanie Jones, 20, and Sarah Magner, 20, all of Palatine.
Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
Haley Hoelscher, 23, of Arlington Heights and Amanda Williams, 22, of Bartlett take a picture of themselves dressed in their rain ponchos as they prepare to head outside to graduate at the Harper College 49th annual commencement Saturday.
Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
Alexa Egan, 20, of Hoffman Estates walks back to her seat with her degree in hand at the 49th annual commencement at William Rainey Harper College got a little rain soaked as the celebration kicked off including.
Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
Graduates of the 49th annual commencement at Harper College got a little rain soaked as they listened to commencement speaker Arne Duncan, former secretary of education, on Saturday.
Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.comHarper College President Ken Ender talks fondly about Arne Duncan during Saturday's commencement.