Dave Bisesi one of 300 to Complete Academic Journey

Dave Bisesi stood under the shade of a tree with his arm around his father's shoulders, his smile bright under the square of his black mortarboard, as his mother snapped a picture.

It was an important day for Bisesi, 23, and his family.

For them, the determination, struggle and sacrifice of getting Bisesi through college formally ended with his graduation from MCLA Saturday afternoon.

Bisesi was among more than 300 students to receive degrees at a the ceremony in the Amsler Campus Center gymnasium. Author, composer and screenwriter James McBride delivered the keynote address.

Bisesi started his effort at the State University of New York at Pottsdam. After two years, he transferred to MCLA.

"My best friend came here, he showed me around," Bisesi recalled. "I liked it - I wanted to go to a smaller school."

Along the way, Bisesi broke a school record for the most points scored in a basketball game during the 2007-08 season, an achievement his dad got a kick out of because he used to play for Syracuse University.

But his devotion to the basketball team made it tough to keep up with his studies. So he took a little longer to get the sheepskin. But he toiled on and he got it.

"The transition was difficult, but (MCLA President) Mary Grant was great," he said. "I don't think I would have made it without her."

And Saturday, his family traveled from their home in Syracuse to see him cross the stage.

"If I look like a proud father it's cause I am," said his dad, Chuck Besesi. "I couldn't be any prouder. He was a God given child, he is very special to us."

When he was a boy, all his parents wanted was to see him graduate from high school.

"Then we got greedy - we wanted to see him graduate from college," his dad said. "It really has been a story book for us."

It was truly a family effort. When the Dave Bisesi was discouraged, his young niece and nephew, Kristen, 16, and Michael Apfel, 14, came out to North Adams and stayed with him for support and encouragement.

"That was a big help, because I want to be a role model for them," he said.

"And he's already got a job," Chuck Bisesi said, a gleeful smile on his face.

A major in sociology, Dave has a job as a manager for AT&T near Syracuse.

McBride, author of The Color of Water and Miracle at St. Anna, journalist and jazz musician, was both funny and insightful, pointing out that the difference between those who fail to succeed and those who do succeed, the ability to learn how to fail, and the ability to "get up off the canvas and try again."

And he captured the mood of those assembled when he said, "We love you, and our hearts are bursting with pride."

(Courtesy of Scott Stafford/Berkshire Eagle)