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BTC students celebrate graduation, many with new jobs

JANESVILLE — On Saturday, 240 students walked, sauntered, loped, strutted and paraded across the stage during Blackhawk Technical College’s graduation ceremonies.

At 1:30 p.m. and again at 4:30 p.m., the dignified strains of “Pomp and Circumstance” filled the ears of hundreds of family members and friends sitting in the college’s commons. The music was accompanied by the gentle clicks of digital cameras, the click of heels and the squeak of sneakers, and the gumblings of fussy children.

Here are a few of Saturday’s highlights:

n Despite tough economic times and high unemployment, many graduates said they already had found jobs.

In the advanced dental assistant category, a chorus of nods and yeses greeted the question about jobs. The one-year program had 13 graduates, all women.

In the diesel and heavy equipment technician category, the yeses were just as common—but in a lower register. All seven graduates of the two-year program were men.

Victor W. Paske of Juda has a job lined up with Fairbanks Morse Engine in Beloit. He went back to school to get a job with better pay and a more secure future.

His former employer, a farm equipment manufacturer, is having a “meeting” with its employees Monday. As most workers know now, those kinds of “meetings” often include announcements of layoffs, cutbacks or other bad news.

n “Change is good” was the unofficial theme of the day.

Barbara Erlandson, BTC director of student services, opened the ceremonies with a speech that included a flurry of quotes about change and meeting the challenges it brings.

“Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches,” Erlandson said.

Student speaker Elisa Colson talked about the moment when she realized she wanted something different.

“I was working at a manufacturer in town, and I was working on the same machine that I had been working on for the past 12 years,” Colson said. “I realized it was not what I wanted to do for the next 12 years. I wanted to change my story.”

BTC President Eric Larson encouraged students to continue their growth and not let the graduation ceremony be the end of their higher education.

n Job news is good news for local diners.

Many of the students graduating from the culinary arts program have jobs that will make us all happier diners.

Mathew Harvey, a former dump truck driver for Lycon in Janesville, will head for Virginia Beach and a job at Cobalt Grille.

Harvey said his education at Blackhawk was in-depth and helped him learn what was needed in the real world of culinary arts.

He also liked the competitions.

Last spring, Harvey and a team of students won first place at the Milwaukee Food Show. They were given a mystery basket of ingredients and had to create appetizers and a meal.

The basket included halibut—the whole fish, not the tidy grocery store package.

“If you don’t cook it just right, you’ll ruin it—like scallops,” Harvey said.

Harvey is well suited for a restaurant job in an oceanfront city.

Closer to home, culinary arts graduate Christine Charbonneau plans to open a bistro on State Street in Beloit.

She’s defining bistro as a “small, modest restaurant” with about 10 tables. The space is being remodeled, and she hopes to open sometime this summer.