Many thoughts crossed my mind as I waited backstage at the Gaylord Conference Center to be announced as a 2024 recipient of the Shirley K. Gordon award at the Phi Theta Kappa annual conference in Orlando, Florida on April 5.

The Gordon award honors community college presidents who demonstrate commitment to student success with written nominations provided by current or former Phi Theta Kappa students.

Not knowing who supplied the nomination or what they said made the award in some ways sweeter, a common theme among the other 15 presidents from the nation’s 1,150 community colleges receiving the Gordon award.

Standing backstage, my thoughts landed on a visit early in my presidency from a vibrant senior citizen from Black River who had my dad as principal in 1960 at Alcona High School.

I was born in 1959, so the stories she told I’d never heard before — I never had my dad as either a teacher or an administrator.

She brought along a black-and-white photo of my father in his office at a point in his life and career when he was younger than I was at the time of her visit.

Despite the decades, I recognized the look. It’s framed in my office, looking over my shoulder, keeping tabs on things.

Your dad could be a stern disciplinarian, she recalled, but she liked him and respected him. What she liked best, she said, was that, no matter what you did that landed you in his office, he had a way of making you feel he was in your corner.

Then my name was called and out I went.

It felt great to represent Alpena Community College in that setting, with approximately 6,000 Phi Theta Kappa honorees and their advisors applauding with brightness and enthusiasm.

I doubt most of them knew where Alpena is.

Looking out, what I saw was youth, vitality, and the diversity of this nation. Picture ACC’s recent Phi Theta Kappa honorees — Megan Wright, Olivia Hemker, Todd Graham, Morgan Esch, Yuki Nishibashi, to name just a few — in a group of 6,000 young people radiating similar brainpower and positive energy.

That’s how it felt to me.

A wise man once noted that community colleges attach wings to dreams. It takes hope and energy to lift off, to focus on the present with the future in mind. That’s what ACC does, and it was a career highlight to represent this fine institution and the communities it serves.

Don MacMaster is president of Alpena Community College.