On Thursday, May 23 at 6 p.m. in Woolsey Hall, the 978 members of the Class of 2013 will receive their degrees and certificates at Gateway Community College’s twenty-first commencement. This year’s most popular majors are liberal arts and sciences and general studies, followed by healthcare professions in nursing and allied health, business, and early childhood education. The 2013 class is the largest graduating class in the college’s history and the first since the college’s move to the new campus.

Marna Borgstrom, president and chief executive officer of Yale New Haven Health System (YNHHS) and chief executive officer of Yale-New Haven Hospital, will deliver the keynote address. A long-time advocate and partner in college initiatives, including the establishment of GCC’s popular nursing program, Borgstrom has been with Yale-New Haven Hospital for more than 30 years in varied roles that have taken her from a post-graduate fellowship, to various staff and management roles, to her 1994 promotion to the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. She assumed her current position in 2005.

Borgstrom holds a Master of Public Health degree in Hospital Administration from Yale School of Medicine and a Bachelor’s degree in Human Biology from Stanford University. She is a lecturer in Yale University’s Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, Health Policy & Administration Division.

Among the 978 graduates are Lee Barden, who will graduate with her grandson; Lucinda Dubois, who started college with her son and persevered in spite of a cancer diagnosis; a mother of four, Aquilla Hatcher, who lost her job and came to the college for retraining only to become an honor’s student, an active member of the student activities association, and an employee at the VA; Jesus Farias and Reymelix Perez (both from Bullard Havens Technical High School in Bridgeport) who graduate with Automotive degrees specializing in General Motors-ASEP and who have already been hired at their GM dealership internship sites. 

Allen Hadelman, founder of Hadley, Inc. Real Estate Management Services, will receive the President’s Award for his service to the community and to Gateway Community College. Hadelman held board memberships in the Building Committee for the New Haven (Floyd Little Athletic Center) Field House, Amistad Academy, the Jewish Home for the Aged, and the New Haven Dixwell Community House. As a member of the New-Alliance Bank Advisory Committee, he helped to identify areas in the community in need of financing to work with new businesses in Greater New Haven. Hadelman has been a Gateway Community College Foundation Board member since 2004 and is a staunch and generous supporter of Gateway Community College, its community of learners and the new downtown campus.

“As a lifelong resident of New Haven,” Hadelman said, “I feel it is important to give back to the community. I have seen firsthand the opportunities Gateway Community College has given to students who otherwise may not have been able to go to college.”

A posthumous degree will be awarded to Mario Rudolph Fasano, Sr. Known to the college as Mr. Gateway, he acted as an ambassador to new students, with an ever-present splash of cologne and an utterly magnetic smile. According to GCC Director of Student Services Matthew Long, Fasano was also a tutor, a leader, a mentor and a friend. Fasano, 53, passed away suddenly on April 28, 2013, less than a month before his long-anticipated graduation. 

Students will begin gathering in the quad behind Woolsey Hall at 4:30 p.m.; doors open at 5:00 p.m. and the procession begins at 6:00 p.m