Special to the Post Independent
Graduates of CMC s Roaring Fork campuses line up before the start of commencement on Saturday.
Photo by Stephanie Stocking
Commencement at Colorado Mountain College is always a special day, but this year was different.
And, not different because students wore masks or because they had to physically distance. Different, in that commencement was not just a fleeting moment of joy. It was a triumphant celebration for hundreds of students who overcame hardship after hardship to get to this point.
Students, who in the face of a devastating pandemic, ruthless wildfires and divisive civil unrest, had the courage to push forward and make this one of the largest graduating classes in the history of Colorado Mountain College.
This Mother’s Day weekend will be extra special for Ana Gallardo.
The young mother will receive her associate’s degree in general studies from Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs on Saturday after enrolling in courses off and on throughout the past decade.
Gallardo was also accepted into Colorado Mountain College’s nursing program after three application attempts.
The first-generation Mexican American student’s rate of progress may seem unremarkable, but Gallardo chose to focus on raising her daughter first before anything else a decision she made when she was only 18-years-old.
“I was pregnant in high school and I was a teen mom,” Gallardo said. “And when I had her in 2011, that’s when I decided to sign up for Colorado Mountain College.”