 Being the president during the 60th anniversary is pretty special and meaningful to me. I am the 7th permanent president of the institution, I'm the first president of color, so it means a lot. It reflects around the rich history and culture of tradition, this institution, and our beautiful staff and faculty and students. It's been an absolute delight to see the way that Highline has grown and changed over the years. From top to bottom, from our faculty and staff, administration, and most importantly our students, Highline truly reflects the community that we live in. The incredible community in South King County and at Highline is the very best in our state. Southwest King County is a very unique blend. It's one of the most diverse areas that you'll find in the state of Washington and probably nationwide. Today we have a beautiful campus that stretches across many acres overlooking the Puget Sound. You see the trees, you see the greenery, there's so many pathways and it's a very beautiful campus. It's somewhere that I enjoy to spend my time at because that's part of what makes a community welcoming. It's having a beautiful campus, making people feel invited to the area. It's just an ever-present opportunity available to our communities in this area. I can't tell you how excited I am to see the college that I saw in 1990 become the college that I see in 2022. You can't force the students of the community to be what you want them to be. You need to be able to respond to them. Highline really looks at the outward community itself and then asks itself how are our policies in line in really serving the needs of the actual community. The community that I've managed to be surrounded by at Highline has been one of the best experiences. I've managed to build relationships that have helped me grow, have helped me learn and explore more about myself that I honestly wouldn't know if I hadn't come here. And that's why I decided to just complete my degree here at Highline. I didn't know what I wanted to do and what I want to study for. I found everything in once here at Highline. My experience at Highline gave me the transferable skills to kind of navigate different industries whether it was me at Amazon or me going to the healthcare industry. We are all committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. It's something that I think makes Highline really unique in the way that we approach education and serving the community. People who come to Highline have to work hard. We're trying to match that determination by providing support and resources. It's the people who come to Highline College with dreams and goals and determination and we see it every day. The foundation really is a lifeline for a lot of students, especially those students who historically marginalized or underserved. They're focused on transformational impact. We're really trying to step in and make sure that they're feeling supported. And when you give to the foundation, you're telling them that their community cares about them as well. They get students coming in and they've overcome so many types of hardships. They're from so many different places. They have the drive. They have the ability. What they need is the means and I think that's what the foundation does. That's what Highline is about the circumstance is to give people that opportunity to do better, to improve on themselves and without the foundation then it doesn't happen. It's essential and without it Highline is not Highline. We need to make sure the pathways are open and available to all students regardless of their economic background. We have several scholarships that we fund but then we also have this rather large pool of money for emergency funds. I've signed checks to pay rent for them to pay a utility bill to help them repair a car. It's about their whole person and the foundation is able to help that. If you're taking a 15 credit load you don't really have a lot of free time to work and so it really helps us be able to focus on our academics and achieve the goals that we want to achieve. Thanks for Highline Foundation. I gain support from them to be able to take the courses that I need, the requirements that I need to be able to graduate and gain this degree. My foundation's contribution really made it possible for me and a bunch of other people to have that experience. I'm leaving proof as to what that kind of support can do for people like me. Their help does not go unnoticed and I'm eternally grateful. I want to invite everybody to support Highline College and Highline Foundation. No matter what amount you could give to the foundation it will be added to all the other people that are supporting the foundation. We like to say that the world comes to Highline because of the unique blend of cultures and languages and diversity that we have on this campus. Where we want to go is we want the world to experience Highline College. We want to be preparing students. We want to give them the tools and the skills and the abilities to go into workplaces not just to be employees but to be leaders and to shape the future industries that we'll see throughout our region. I would just like to say on behalf of the Board of Trustees and the College how much we appreciate you supporting the Highline Foundation we would not be able to support students without your generosity. When I think about the next six years I'm hopeful that our students will make this place a better world than it is today. That our staff and faculty provide exceptional learning inside and outside of the classroom so our students can take what they've learned and grow and soar. I would ask anyone who is interested in our state's future to give generously to Highline and Highline Foundation. Highline College and Foundation has endured. Now we can celebrate 60 years. We want another 60 years.