“I know that it’s a cliché to say ‘new and exciting,’ but it really is,” says Susan Smedley, director of marketing and public relations for Coastal Bend College. “Everyone at CBC is excited about this change to our speaker format for graduation.”

What Smedley is referring to is the decision to move to student speakers for the college’s May 11 graduation ceremony.

“We’ll have two speakers – one for the morning ceremony beginning at 10 o’clock and one for the afternoon ceremony that begins at 2.”

The two students, Terilyn Zengerle and Tamara Jo Williams, were selected from a pool of applicants. The college conducted a systemwide promotion asking for students interested in speaking to submit an application and an overview of what their speech would contain if they were the one selected to speak. The search committee was comprised of faculty representing all four of the college’s campuses.

Speaker for the morning graduation is Tamara Jo Williams from the college’s Pleasanton campus. Terilynn Zengerle from the Beeville campus will speak at 2 p.m.

Williams has been a student at the CBC Pleasanton campus since graduating from high school at age 16 in 2010. She has traveled three hours every day for four semesters to make her classes. She was a member of the Biology Club and Student Government Club and is a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. She plans to attend UTSA in the fall and pursue a bachelor’s degree in microbiology.

Williams currently resides in Gonzales and is the daughter of Verle Dwayne Williams and Arlene M. Kurtz Williams.

Zengerle is graduating from CBC with her associates of applied science degree. She is a member of Phi Theta Kappa and plans to attend Del Mar College in Corpus Christi and earn an associates of science in health information technology. Ultimately, she hopes to attain her bachelor’s of science in health information management from Texas State University.

Zengerle lives in Yorktown with her husband of 32 years and is the grandmother of seven.

CBC’s Spring 2012 Commencement Ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. in the Peter S. Marecek gymnasium and repeat again at 2 p.m. The public is invited to attend.