COMMENCEMENT 2017

Date and Location

Commencement took place on Wednesday May 24, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. on the Green at Three Rivers Community College.

Photo Gallery

You’ll find over 120 photos of Commencement in our Flickr gallery, TRCC Commencement 2017.

Live Stream Videocast of Commencement 2017

Click here for the video of our live stream broadcast of the ceremony.

Media Coverage

The Bulletin – “Many of us come to Three Rivers to change our lives”

The Day – Three Rivers Community College grads told to choose love over hate 

Commencement Address Speaker

Dr. Jose B. Gonzalez is the author of Toys Made of Rock, a finalist of the International Book Award. 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.

He states, “During my time at Three Rivers I taught some of the most impressive students who ever stepped inside a classroom. I still keep in touch with many of them and have run into them throughout Connecticut. I love seeing their success in their careers in social service agencies, the Navy, General Dynamics, Millstone, the Coast Guard Academy, and in many other organizations. Likewise, I met the best staff and legendary faculty there who served as mentors, who helped shape my pedagogical philosophies, and who became my close friends for life. Three Rivers is where I started my family, where I would meet my children’s godparents, and where I would always feel at home.”