For the second June in a row, graduates from Capitol Hill’s Seattle Central College had to celebrate their accomplishments with a socially distanced ceremony. For the second June in a row, they made the best of it.

CHS stopped by Saturday as SCC graduates marked the milestone with a celebratory drive/walk ceremony atop the school’s Harvard and Pine parking garage.

Parker (Image: Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Gilda Sheppard, from her documentary “Since I’ve Been Down.”)

The school also honored valedictorian Andre Parker who earned his associate degree from Seattle Central this year while serving a 40-year sentence at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton. Parker was awarded Seattle Central’s Presidential Medal after graduating from the Taking Education and Creating History (TEACH) program, an educational community created by and for inmates in three Washington correctional facilities. The free classes are supported through donations, and grants.

About 100 students are currently taking classes through TEACH and Seattle Central College. Six students earned associate degrees in the 2020-21 school year.

The Broadway school, meanwhile, continued to serve its nearly 7,000 students through the pandemic as the community college overcame challenges in distance learning.

School president Dr. Sheila Edwards Lange is preparing to lead the campus into new growth including a new six-story Information Technology Education Center on Broadway. Development could also eventually mean the parking garage that hosted Saturday’s celebration could eventually make way for new student and faculty housing.

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