Butler Community College Celebrated its 90th Annual Commencement

Butler Community College held its 90th annual commencement ceremony on May 13. This spring, Butler graduated 641 students.

“You have captured our hearts and blessed our lives,” said Kim Krull, Ph.D., president of Butler. “Be proud of all you have accomplished. Go out and share that wealth.”

The keynote speaker for the evening was Dr. Greg Joyce. Joyce attended Butler in the early 70s. He then went on to become an optometrist and practices in El Dorado. Recently honored as the Butler Foundation’s 2017 Distinguished Alumnus, Joyce said how fortunate he was to have come to Butler.

“Education is never really complete,” Joyce said. “You learn something new every day.”

Butler also took time to recognize the Hubbard Award of Excellence winner, Olivia Jacoby of Andover. Jacoby, who plans to continue at Butler in the BEST program, will use the $15,000 scholarship toward her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Emporia State University while attending school on the Butler campus. After being told that she would not attend college, Jacoby excelled. She graduated with an Order of the Purple honors.

“I want to become a teacher so I can inspire students,” Jacoby said. “If you set your mind to it, you can achieve everything.”

Runners up for the Hubbard Award were Payton Dahmer of Nevada, Mo., who plans to attend Kansas State University and major in agriculture, Madalyn May of El Dorado, who will transfer into the pre-veterinarian program at Kansas State, Sarah Slack of Conway Springs, who will major in music education at Wichita State University and Whitney Whitaker of Atascadero, Calif., who will major in animal science at Kansas State. Both Dahmer and Whitaker were named national All-Americans in Livestock Judging.