Norwich, Conn.— Three Rivers Community College is pleased to announce that Dr. Jose B. Gonzalez, poet and professor at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, will be the keynote speaker at the College’s twenty-fifth commencement ceremony, which will take place on Wednesday, May 24 at 5 p.m. outdoors on the campus green.

Speakers will include Mary Ellen Jukoski, President of Three Rivers Community College; William J. McGurk, member of the Board of Regents for Higher Education; Mark Ojakian, President of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, and Roxanne Tisch, faculty member of Three Rivers.

Three Rivers is proud to confer 528 associate degrees and 89 certificates to students this year. Three Rivers Community College congratulates all of their graduates.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jose B. Gonzalez

Dr. Jose B. Gonzalez is the author of the International Book Award Finalist, Toys Made of Rock. Born in El Salvador, he is a proud immigrant who once knew no English and now has a Ph.D. in English. He has been a featured speaker at colleges and universities throughout the country and has been a featured poet at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, the Poetry Foundation, and international literary festivals. He has had his work anthologized in collections such as the Norton Introduction to Literature and The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States. A Fulbright Scholar, he has been a contributor to National Public Radio. He is the co-editor (with John S. Christie) of Latino Boom: An Anthology of U.S. Latino Literature, and is the editor of LatinoStories.Com.

Currently a professor of English at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Gonzalez taught at Three Rivers Community College from 1993-1999 as an Instructor of English and as a tenured Assistant Professor of English. He taught Composition, Introduction to Literature, Speech, and developed the curriculum for Ethnic Literature of the U.S. and U.S. Latino Literature. He also served as an Interim Director of Continuing Education.