State Legislator to speak at VGCC Basic Skills Commencement

Vance-Granville Community College will hold commencement exercises dedicated exclusively to new graduates of Adult Basic Skills programs on Thursday, May 8. The ceremony will begin at 6 p.m. in the Civic Center on the college’s Main Campus in Vance County.

 

Those being honored at commencement will include approximately 350 students who have completed either the Adult High School Diploma program or the High School Equivalency program in the past year.

 

N.C. Representative Bobbie Richardson (pictured above) will serve as the guest speaker.

 

Rep. Richardson recently retired after a distinguished career in education. She has served as the Director of Exceptional Children for Warren County Schools and for Vance County Schools, and in administrative and consulting roles for the N.C. Department of Correction and the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. Richardson is also a former teacher and teacher assistant, working with exceptional children.

 

A former member of the Franklin County School Board, Richardson was appointed in Jan. 2013 to fill a vacancy in the North Carolina House of Representatives for House District 7 (which consists of portions of Nash and Franklin counties). She currently serves on the following committees: Appropriations, Commerce and Job Development, Elections, Insurance, Judiciary, Regulatory Reform, and the Joint Legislative Committee on Local Government.

 

Richardson is a graduate of North Carolina Central University, where she earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees, and of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned her doctorate in Education Leadership. Richardson lives in the Wood community in northeastern Franklin County. She is the mother of three grown children and grandmother of two.

 

Speaking on behalf of the graduating students during the ceremony will be Tra-Ron Williams of Henderson. He completed the High School Equivalency program in December 2013.