A‑B Tech’s 2026 Commencement Ceremony

A Class That Reflects the Region It Serves

Two days after A‑B Tech Community College filled Harrah’s Cherokee Center with cheers, families, and the unmistakable hum of accomplishment, the feeling of the 2026 Commencement still lingers.

The ceremony, held Saturday, May 16, 2026, drew a crowd that nearly filled the downtown Asheville arena, gathering to honor a class defined by persistence, creativity, and grit.

Sharon Decker — senior advisor to Governor Josh Stein’s Advisory Committee on Western North Carolina Recovery and former NC Secretary of Commerce — delivered a keynote address that struck a balance between encouragement and challenge. Her message centered on rebuilding, reimagining, and claiming space in a rapidly changing region. Graduates responded with long applause, many standing.

President John Gossett, who presided over the ceremony, framed the day as the culmination of years marked by disruption and determination. “The Class of 2026 is resilient and impressive,” he told the audience. “Most of them work, many have families, and they all experienced a pandemic and a hurricane; but they persisted.” His remarks landed with particular weight as families nodded, clapped, and wiped away tears.

A‑B Tech awarded 871 degrees and diplomas for the 2025–26 academic year, with roughly 400 graduates crossing the stage. The breadth of programs represented made the ceremony feel like a portrait of Western North Carolina’s workforce in motion.

University transfer graduates walked with Associate in Arts, Science, Fine Arts, Engineering, and Teacher Preparation degrees — 294 in total — many already accepted to four‑year institutions across the state.

Applied sciences graduates represented fields as varied as aviation, welding, healthcare, hospitality, public safety, and IT. The 446 AAS degrees awarded underscored the college’s role in training essential workers.

Dual‑enrolled high school students made a strong showing, with 61 students earning associate degrees before receiving their high school diplomas. Buncombe County Early College led the group with 37 graduates.

Five women from the Western Correctional Center for Women received Social and Human Services Technology degrees with honors — a moment that drew some of the ceremony’s most heartfelt applause.

The college also celebrated its first graduate of the Artificial Intelligence AAS program, marking a milestone for a degree launched just two years ago.

The event was fully accessible, with ASL interpreters, closed captioning, and a live stream on A‑B Tech’s YouTube channel. Families unable to attend in person tuned in from across the region, and the college has since posted photo galleries and video highlights on its social media platforms.

For many graduates — more than half of whom are first‑generation college students — the ceremony represented not just personal achievement but generational change. That sense of transformation was visible everywhere: in the decorated caps, in the long embraces, in the families who arrived early and stayed late to take photos under the arena lights.

A Moment Worth Returning To

Commencement may last only a few hours, but the echoes of this year’s celebration feel larger. A‑B Tech’s Class of 2026 stepped into the arena as students and walked out as graduates — carrying with them the stories of a region that continues to rebuild, adapt, and imagine new futures.

You can explore individual graduate stories at abtech.edu/commencement-profiles, or revisit the ceremony through the college’s online photo and video archives.

A-B Tech 2026 Commencement Ceremony

The 2026 annual celebration honoring outstanding students.