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Dr. Devan Nicely, principal at Enderly Heights Elementary School, will be the featured speaker at commencement exercises for Mountain Gateway Community College on Friday, May 12, beginning at 7 p.m., in the Armory on the Clifton Forge campus.
Nicely is being honored as this year’s recipient of the distinguished alumni award. Student speaker will be graduating class member Rachel Anne Madeline Reyns of Covington.
Although this is the 56th such graduation ceremony for the college, this will be the first under its current name. MGCC was founded in 1962 as the Covington-Clifton Forge Branch of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and later renamed Dabney S. Lancaster Community College when it joined the newly formed Virginia Community College System.
MGCC will also host a pinning ceremony on Thursday, May 11, for both the nursing and practical nursing graduates. That ceremony begins at 6 pm, also in the Armory. The featured speaker will be Deneen Davis, nurse manager at Carilion Rockbridge Community Hospital in Lexington.
Nicely, a native of Clifton Forge, is a veteran of the U.S. Army, having served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan while achieving the rank of captain. A graduate of Virginia Military Institute, he is nearing the end of his first year as Enderly principal. He was previously named a teacher of the year in Roanoke city, where he was an instructor at the Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy, working with disadvantaged and at-risk youth. He then served as assistant principal at Mountain View Elementary School in Alleghany County for four years.
