NJC honors Schumacher family with Pride in Association Award

The Schumacher family’s recognition at Northeastern Junior College’s commencement put a spotlight on something Logan County knows well: when local families stay invested in NJC, the college can keep serving students from Sterling and across northeast Colorado.

Walter Schumacher and Marcella Schumacher received the Pride in Association Award from the Northeastern Junior College Alumni Association, an honor the college established in 2002 for a family or individual that has shown support, dedication and loyalty over the years. The award was presented in front of graduates, faculty and families during the college’s recent commencement ceremony, making the recognition part of one of NJC’s biggest public traditions of the year.

That tradition matters because the alumni association’s mission is not just ceremonial. NJC says the group exists to help graduates remember their collegiate experience, reconnect through alumni activities and reinvest in the college’s continued growth and prosperity. The heritage of that work is visible on campus, too, where the alumni heritage center is on the second floor of Hays Student Center in Sterling.

The award also fits into a long pattern of NJC using commencement to recognize families whose support has had practical effects on students’ lives. In 2019, the college honored the Kokes family with the same award. NJC said the family’s connection to the school ran through rural communities including Crook, Sterling and Yuma, and that the college’s reduced tuition for county residents, backed by a special mill levy, helped draw the next generation to Northeastern. NJC also said all six Kokes children, and most of their spouses, began their education there. The college pointed to community and adult education offerings such as Young Farmers and Emergency Medical Response training as part of the institution’s broader reach.

That history helps explain why the Schumacher honor resonates beyond campus tradition. In Logan County, NJC is more than a place where degrees are handed out. It is a public institution that depends on alumni backing, family loyalty and community trust to keep opportunities affordable and relevant for local students. The alumni association’s award gives visible thanks to the people who help sustain that relationship, and it does so at the moment when the next class of graduates is stepping into it.

NJC has continued to make that connection visible at commencement in recent years, including honors for 375 graduates at its 78th annual ceremony in 2021, 343 graduates in 2022 and 352 in 2023. The Schumacher family’s award now joins that record as another reminder that the college’s strength has always come from the families and communities around it.