Germanna Celebrates Fall 2025 Graduates
900 graduates recognized at last week's commencement ceremony.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Germanna Community College held its Fall 2025 Commencement Ceremony last week, celebrating the achievements of more than 900 graduates, who together earned 1,042 degrees, credentials, and certificates.
“I offer my heartfelt congratulations to each of you,” said Van Wilson, interim college president, at the ceremony, which took place on Thursday, December 11, at the Anderson Center on the University of Mary Washington campus. “Your hard work, resilience and determination have brought you to this moment, and we could not be prouder. May your future be filled with success and fulfillment.”
The ceremony’s student speaker was LaRai Diamond-Fortune, who graduated last week with an Associate of Applied Science in criminal justice, with a focus on probation, parole, and systemic reform.
An advocate for second chances for justice-involved individuals, Diamond-Fortune spoke about how through Germanna, she was able to give herself a second chance.
“I returned to school after nearly two decades away. My first research assignment was a D — I almost quit,” she said. “But a professor reminded me, ‘You’ve been out of school for years. Don’t give up.’ And I didn’t. My joy for learning was reignited. I finally allowed myself to be the person I always wanted to be. I took many detours, but I made it back to the main road.”
According to a press release from Germanna, Diamond-Fortune plans to attend law school to “further her commitment to systemic reform and to empower justice-involved individuals through ethical leadership and creative outreach.”
The college is heading into the new year with credit enrollment up 5%, workforce and dual enrollment both up 18%, and African American enrollment up 11% over the previous year, according to its annual report.
Dr. Tashika Griffith will take over as the seventh permanent president of Germanna Community College effective January 1.
She comes to Germanna from the position of provost and chief campus officer at the Clearwater Campus of St. Petersburg State College in St. Petersburg, Florida, where she has been since 2022.
In addition to years in higher education, both as an adjunct professor and in administration, Griffith has taught public high school and served on the university police department at Florida Atlantic University.
She currently serves as an adjunct faculty member for the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership.
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Diamond-Fortune's arc from getting a D on that first assignment to becoming student speaker is powerful. Coming back after two decades and not giving up when things were rough takes grit. The focus on probation and systemic reform from someone who actualy lived through adjacent issues brings a perspective that classrooms alone can't provide, which makes her pivot to law school pretty strategic for impact work.
The CC should follow up to see how many graduates got jobs in their field,