February 14, 2014 | SharkAdmin [image 1]What better occasion than Valentine’s Day for celebrating the contributions of our scholarship donors and hearing from student recipients about their aspirations and what their scholarships have meant to them! And a poem by Vaclav Havel I read to them and I share now with you: [image 2]It Is I Who Must Begin It is I who must begin.Once I begin, once I try—here and now,right where I am,not excusing myselfby saying that thingswould be easier elsewhere,without grand speeches andostentatious gestures,but all the more persistently— to live in harmonywith the “voice of Being,” as Iunderstand it within myself— as soon as I begin that,[image 3]I suddenly discover,to my surprise, thatI am neither the only one,nor the first,nor the most important oneto have set outupon that road.Whether all is really lostor not depends entirely onwhether or not I am lost. The Steps to Graduation As we get closer to graduation, its important students understand the steps to completion and what it takes to “walk across the stage.” March 21 is the date by which students need to get in their graduation application and graduation advising in order to be a part of the ceremony on May 14. If they miss the deadline, they can of course still graduate but will miss the ceremony and will have to wait until the summer to officially graduate. The five steps to completion can be found at www.GetYourDegreeAtNVC.com. Faculty members can help get the word out by making announcements in classes and providing the web link. Here’s a link to a La reVista article Vice President of Academics Jimmie Bruce contributed on the benefits of an associate degree.