Associate Degree

Margaret “Maggie” Hetzer was an original. Her friends said she never missed calling on their birthdays and anniversaries, and those of their family members. “She always asked about our families. She never talked about herself. She ended her phone calls with, 'I love you,'” said Lieba Cohen of Hagerstown. “How do you describe somebody like that?” said Bill Hetzer, Maggie's husband of 43 years. “Special,” said Carolyn Brooks of Hagerstown. Even though Maggie didn't like to shop in stores, the “fashionista,” as described by Tina Angle of Hagerstown, had a knack for finding the perfect gifts for her friends and styles that suited her unique fashion sense in the catalogs from which she shopped.

Looking at the Greater Hagerstown Committee's 2012 College & Career Readiness Report Card, Washington County Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said he found it compelling to see that the county ranked 19th in the state concerning the percentage of residents who have at least a bachelor's degree. Using information from the U.S. Census Bureau's five-year estimates, 18.7 percent of Washington County residents who are 25 or older had at least a bachelor's degree, according to the report card.

Rick Howe is passionate about higher education and is extending his own career as a student to spread the word. Howe is president of Phi Theta Kappa, or PTK, an international honor society at Hagerstown Community College. The mission of the organization is to recognize and encourage achievement of two-year college students, as well as provide opportunities for individual growth and development through participation in honors, leadership, service and fellowship opportunities, according to its website.

The public is invited to visit the new main campus for Blue Ridge Community and Technical College Friday from from 2 p.m. to 5 pm for Friends and Family Day, the college announced Tuesday. The new campus is on W.Va. 45 past The Commons at 13650 Apple Harvest Drive. Tours of the new building will be offered throughout the day and refreshments will be provided. This is a chance to learn about new programs and the admissions process, according to a news release. Courses begin at the new location this fall.

June E. (Lowery) Harris, 53, of Boonsboro, Md., loving daughter, sister, mother, aunt and friend, passed away peacefully on Tuesday morning, July 31, 2012, surrounded by her loving family at her home, after a courageous battle with breast cancer. Born Feb. 20, 1959, in Hagerstown, Md., she was the daughter of Shirley (Wagner) Lowery of Rohrersville, Md., and the late William Lowery. June was a lifetime member of St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Keedysville, Md. She was a 1977 graduate of Boonsboro High School and a 1979 graduate of Hagerstown Junior College, where she received her associate degree in nursing.

Parking at Trinity church lot to be limited WAYNESBORO, Pa. - In order to perform required maintenance, parking in the Trinity United Church of Christ parking lot will be limited beginning tonight, according to a news release from the Borough of Waynesboro. Various sections of the lot will be posted as “no parking” to allow for preliminary work. Effective Friday afternoon, parking in the Trinity United Church of Christ parking lot will be prohibited, except for the southern-most row of parking stalls that borders Alley No. 1 North, which is the first east-west alley north of Main Street.

Left this world for her better place, Sharon Kay Casey-Frazier was formerly employed by Roxbury Correctional Institution as a fiscal accounts clerk II for seven years. She received awards for employee of the year from the governor for her excellence. Sharon was a graduate of Northern High School in Baltimore, Md. She also received her associate degree in accounting from Hagerstown Community College. Sharon helped anyone she could with everything she had. She didn't belong to any clubs except mine and my brothers.

Miche'l Johnson might have been released from prison this week, or she might have graduated from college. Depending on her choices, she said, it could have gone either way. Johnson grew up one of six children of a single parent in a heavy drug-trafficking area of Newburgh, N.Y. She was an honors student, but she ran with a rough crowd. She did not value education and did not graduate from high school, she said. In 2001, while staying with her sister in Kansas, she earned her GED, then attended Tennessee State University, studying biochemistry for two semesters before dropping out. In 2009, she was back in New York living with friends.

As the oldest graduate at Penn State Mont Alto's spring commencement on Saturday, Kay Dawson is proof that it's never too late to go back to school. “I say never stop learning. I really enjoy learning,” said Dawson, 55, of Fayetteville, Pa. “There's always something out there to learn about. It keeps your mind active, and it keeps you on the ball.” Dawson received her bachelor of science degree in nursing on Saturday. She earned a degree in elementary education from Shippensburg (Pa.)