HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) – Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears is set as Tidewater Community College’s commencement speaker this Spring.

According to a press release, Lt. Gov. Earle-Sears will be a speaker for the 76th Commencement Exercises, which will take place on May 8 at Chartway Arena in the Ted Constant Convocation Center at Old Dominion University. The ceremony begins at 5 p.m.

Earle-Sears was born in Jamaica and came to the United States with her family when she was six years old. She started working as an electrician in the United States Marines and then in her mid-twenties started taking classes at TCC.

 “The small classes and affordability were helpful. And the quality of the education was not diminished because the same professors at TCC also taught at the four-year institutions,” Earle-Sears said. “TCC was a godsend for me, having been out of school for eight years. I had to brush up my skills and the administrators and professors showed such patience and encouraged returning students not to think we were less than others.

Earle-Sears got her associate’s degree in liberal arts in 1992 and later received her bachelor’s from Old Dominion University and her master’s from Regent University.