Rappahannock Community College officials bestowed 664 degrees and certificates to 505 members of the class of 2013 during the school’s 41st commencement ceremony held May 10 on RCC’s Warsaw campus.

"Beautiful lawn, beautiful day, beautiful graduating class," said RCC president Elizabeth Crowther as she welcomed attendees to the open-air ceremony. "This is an exciting time in so many lives."

RCC dean of technology and distance education Leslie Smith served both as the keynote speaker and as the bearer of the ceremonial mace.

"In 1973, the most advanced technology we had was the IBM Selectric," Smith said. "That was state of the art for us." Through all the advances that have occurred since then, she has remained aware that, "the tool doesn’t matter, as long as you know how to use it and be productive with it."

Smith’s advice to the current graduates was to live by the three Ps: "pride, passion, and proactivity."

Pride in a job well done, she said, was...