Rebecca Phanor
Cleveland State Community College has chosen students Samary Holguin and Rebeccah Phanor as keynote speakers for the Spring 2021 Commencement Ceremonies. Approximately 400 degrees and certificates will be awarded during two graduation ceremonies. The first will be held on Friday, May 7, at 5:30 p.m., and the second will be held on Saturday, May 8 at 10 a.m. Both ceremonies will be held in the L. Quentin Lane Center.
“To enable our face-to-face graduation ceremonies we needed to control our overall attendance,” said Dr.
Bill Seymour, CSCC president. “Rather than inviting outside speakers, we decided to utilize members of the graduating class. So, it made sense to go with two of our most outstanding students.”
Samary Holguin was born and raised in Orlando and moved to Tennessee in 2014. She is a 2019 graduate of Cleveland High School where she was actively involved in many clubs and organizations. She chose CSCC because she knew it would be the right first step in her educational journey. Since enrolling at Cleveland State, she has been involved in the LEO Club serving as vice president, as well as having served as the vice president of leadership for the college’s Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society for two years. In addition, she has served as the SGA president for two semesters and regularly attends weekly President Cabinet meetings. Ms. Holguin plans to attend the University of Tennessee Knoxville to pursue her bachelor’s degree. She is the daughter of Jose and Betzy Hoguin and the sister of Lysander, all of Cleveland.
Rebeccah Phanor is the fourth of seven children born to Haitian immigrant parents. Her family moved from Florida to Cleveland when she was seven years old. She graduated from
Cleveland High School with a 4.0 G.P.A. and decided to attend Cleveland State Community College in the Fall of 2018. During her matriculation at Cleveland State Community College, she has been a very active student in the Honor’s College, where she was awarded the 2020-2021 Outstanding Honors Student award and has held several leadership positions on campus. She served as a peer mentor, the vice president of the Student Government Association, president of the Diversity Club, and the president of the Baptist Collegiate Ministry. She is also active in her community volunteering with the Unity Center and the Cleveland Homeless Shelter. She currently works at the Boys and Girls Club, where she gets to share her love for children and helping others. She was awarded the Outstanding Leadership Scholarship from Fisk University and will attend in the fall to continue her studies in psychology.
For those unable to attend the Cleveland State Community College Spring 2021 Spring Commencement Ceremonies, the events will be streamed live and can be viewed at mycs.cc/graduation.
Samary Holguin