Cloud County Community College Graduation Set for May 17; Senator Elaine Bowers Named Distinguished Alumni of the Year

Cloud County Community College commencement activities are scheduled for 5 pm on Friday, May 17th in Arley Bryant Gymnasium on the Concordia campus.  The event will recognize 197 graduates from the Concordia and Geary County campuses and outreach locations.

For those who cannot attend, the ceremony will be livestreamed on the College’s YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@cloudthunderbirds2386/streams.

The link will be available on the college website’s main page, and on social media.

Graduates and their guests are invited to a reception prior to commencement in the T-Bird Café on the Concordia campus from 2:30-4:30 pm on Friday.

The nurses’ pinning ceremony will be at 2 pm in the gymnasium.  For those who cannot attend, the event will also be streamed on YouTube.  The link will be available on the college’s website and social media pages.  It will also be on the Nursing Department’s Facebook page (Cloud County Community College Nursing Program).

The Distinguished Alumni of the Year Award will be presented to Senator Elaine Bowers.

Senator Elaine S. (Haley) Bowers graduated with her Associates of Arts degree in Travel and Tourism and Business Management in 1983.  She said she chose Cloud because of the degree program offered in partnership with Trans World Airlines and the strong connections she made from visiting campus, namely, Wally Carlson.

While attending Cloud, she found her passion in representing the student body and making a difference by participating in Student Senate.  She also met and fell in love with her husband, Charlie Bowers, when they both took a bowling class for their PE course.  She has worked side by side with her husband at their business, Concordia Auto Mart, Inc. since 1988.  Elaine credits her time at Cloud as an opportunity to learn the value of community colleges in Kansas first-hand from people who genuinely cared about her future, which has impacted her career as a Kansas politician.

Sen. Bowers was first elected in 2007 to serve as State Representative for District 107.  In 2010, both the Senate and House districts were redrawn due to the previous US census.  Senate District #36 was formed, which included House District 107 and added twelve more counties.  Today, she represents more than 71,000 people in north central, west, and eastern Kansas in the 36th Senate District.  The district is the second largest in the state, with thirteen counties and more than 10,500 square miles.

She is serving in her third Senate term since first being elected in 2012.  She is the Chairman of the Transparency and Ethics Committee and serves on Local Government, Utilities, Judiciary, Transportation Committees as a member, the Joint (Senate and House) Post Audit Committee, and the Capitol Preservation Committee appointed by the Senate President.

Sen. Bowers has recently announced her candidacy for re-election to the Kansas State Senate.  She seeks to continue her dedicated representation and advocacy for the constituents of her district.

The student speaker at graduation will be Zach Chance, Concordia campus Student Senate president.