Carrying the comforting and celebratory chimes of a steel drum, a cool breeze blew across Steward Field in Aberdeen Friday evening, swaying the royal blue gowns and tassels of soon-to-be Grays Harbor College graduates.

The graduates, among the 500 who received degrees from Grays Harbor College in the class of 2023, paraded along the turf, waving to family and friends in the grandstands along the way, before settling into rows of white folding chairs near a stage on the west end of the field.

“This night is about celebration, and it’s about stories of all of you,” said outgoing Grays Harbor College President Ed Brewster from the podium.

Brewster, who served as president for 14 years, and left retirement to refill the role after another president unexpectedly resigned due to illness three years ago, led his final commencement ceremony Friday.

Vanessa Kowoosh listened from a white folding chair as Brewster addressed the graduates. After receiving her degree she burst through a tunnel of congratulatory college faculty into the arms of her eight children and husband.

“It feels amazing,” Kowoosh said a few minutes later.

Kowoosh, who received an associates degree in early childhood education, became the first in her family to earn a college degree. She lives in Queets, a town on the northern tip of the Quinault Indian Reservation, where she works as the lead teacher for the Queets Head Start early childhood center, where she began teaching six years ago.

She’s also a bus driver, and cared for her elderly mother and eight children — aged two to 16 — while earning her degree, driving hours to attend class.

Her children also assisted her along the way. Kowoosh’s oldest daughter, Yvette, lent knowledge from her own high school science courses to help her mother pass a biology class on the way to earning her degree.

Kowoosh said she plans to continue her education by pursuing a bachelor’s in teacher education.

Grays Harbor College offers three bachelor’s degree programs: teacher education, organizational management and forest resources management. The latter degree allowed recent graduate Timothy Sheets to secure a job with Sierra Pacific Industries.

“It feels really nice, because now I can actually go out and do what I want to do,” Sheets said after receiving his degree.

Rather than silk-coated square hats made of cardboard, the forestry grads sported Choker-blue hardhats, which made them easy to spot, but disuaded them from performing the traditional cap launch following the commencement.

The college awarded 31 bachelor’s degrees, 328 associate’s degrees, 85 certificates and 60 high school diplomas. GHC also runs a program that serves inmates at Stafford Creek Corrections Center, which awarded 87 degrees, including 60 high school diplomas or GEDs.

Brewster said this year’s high number of Running Start graduates, with 101 students, earned their associate’s degrees completing their first two years of college during their final two years of high school. Sixteen students from the 2023 class graduated with a 4.0 GPA, 11 of them were from the Running Start program, and a few of them earned more than one college degree in the process.

A graduate of GHC’s Running Start program also happened to be the keynote speaker Friday evening. Born and raised in Aberdeen, Malia Marks later attended Harvard University, and then Cambridge University in England, pursuing psychology and criminal justice. She will soon begin doctoral work there.

To begin her speech, Marks echoed a message she received at her own graduation ceremony in England — that “we, as graduates, had proven ourselves both in character and achievements.”

She continued: “Over the last few years, you’ve not just been finishing assignments, and learning new subjects, you’ve also been shaping your character.”

With their degrees, Marks told the graduates, they would now have the tools to act and argue with logic, rather than fear and emotion.

“All of your futures have something in common,” she said. “You will all face conflict: Intellectual conflict, conflict of interests. I know that you all now have character traits not to shy away from that conflict in fear, but to charge towards it with a level head.”

When walking across the stage to receive her degree, Felicia Nieto said she had “tunnel vision.” She said she’s always wanted to further her education, and for her it was a decade-long journey.

Completing college was a feat she originally attempted in 2014, when she moved to Aberdeen to study criminal justice. But the effort was derailed when she relapsed into opioid addiction. She became homeless, and eventually found herself in prison a few years later.

In 2020 she was sentenced to Grays Harbor Therapeutic Court and given a choice: either work or enroll in school. With some credits already complete, Nieto chose school, but changed her focus to counseling.

After three years of sobriety and studying, Nieto earned her associates degree in human services with a focus on chemical dependency. She now works for the social service agency Destination Hope and Recovery as a housing and employment case manager. She said she hopes to eventually use the degree to help counsel people dealing with addiction.

“It was like I was walking into my life — the beginning of my life,” Nieto said about receiving her degree. “Like, I finally did it. I get emotional about it because it’s been a long time coming. I’ve wanted to do something with my life, and I know I’m intelligent. I’ve finally reached that point to where, now, I can keep my head up high. Now I’m part of society. Now I have a degree and I can practice what my passion is.”

Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.

Clayton Franke / The Daily World After receiving her degree in early childhood education, Vanessa Kowoosh, center, embraces Zakiah and King Kowoosh (left to right), two of her eight children.