PORTSMOUTH — Great Bay Community College will host its third annual Distinguished Leaders award reception on Thursday, Oct. 2, at the Wentworth by the Sea Hotel in New Castle.
This year’s event, themed, “Advanced Manufacturing’s Night Out” will serve as a fundraiser with donations going toward student scholarships and support services. At the same event in 2013, more than $250,000 was raised providing scholarships for students enrolled in both associate degree programs and short-term certificate programs including ACM (Advanced Composites Manufacturing), CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) training, welding, and an insurance industry certificate program.
“Through programs such as the Distinguished Leaders Award,” said GBCC President Will Arvelo. “Great Bay and the Community College System of New Hampshire are working to make higher education more accessible and affordable to New Hampshire residents.”
This year’s Distinguished Leaders Award event will feature guest speaker John Ratzenberger. He is best known for his role as “Cliff Clavin” on Cheers, lending his voice to Pixar movies and most recently as the host of “Made in America.” Ratzenberger is currently on tour speaking about the importance of advanced manufacturing around the country.
“In today’s world, we have this clean manufacturing that the general public is not aware of,” said Ratzenberger, “and institutions like Great Bay are bringing programs, such as their Advanced Composites Manufacturing certificate program, to the forefront. With their help, we are seeing the workforce in that industry expand to fill in the gaps that need skilled and well-trained workers. If you have a program like their ACM program that has had 17 of its 20 students already hired only one year after the beginning of the program, then you know they are doing something right.”
“The Distinguished Leaders event serves as a way to celebrate our connection to the community, our students, and the surrounding business and industry in New Hampshire,” Arvelo said. “We continue to do this kind of work because we know that our students, their families and local industry all benefit. We are connecting the outside community to what goes on inside of Great Bay by allowing relationships with companies to flourish and by directing our students to the pathways they need once they finish their time here.”
For more information on the Distinguished Leaders Award event or sponsorship opportunities, please visit http://www.greatbay.edu/DLA or contact Bryan Godduhn, assistant to the president, at 603-427-7602.
