Patricia Lynn Brady and Nathan Billings help Lamoussa Gountanti adjust his mortarboard before the Central Maine Community College graduation at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston on Thursday evening.

Abigail London and Alexandria Hunt share a laugh before the the Central Maine Community College graduation at the Colisee in Lewiston Thursday evening.

LEWISTON — Nervous? Hardly.

Melissa Ann Potter is a single mother raising three children. She’s a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society who managed to get herself named Central Maine Community College’s Student of the Year while working a pair of jobs. Putting on a cap and gown wasn’t nearly enough to unnerve her while she collected her diploma.

And Deion Jenkins, well, this is a 21-year-old who was declared clinically dead on an operating table not so long ago. He went back to school to get his degree in spite of that and he wasn’t trembling a bit as he prepared to collect his diploma.

The Auburn college graduated nearly 600 people at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Thursday night and, while it’s a staggering number, school officials were wowed more by the prospect of what those graduates might do with their lives.

“More than just numbers,” said Dean of Planning Roger G. Philippon, “we are proud to have had a hand in changing so many lives for the better and improving the workforce of the state of Maine.”

In his address, Auburn Mayor Jonathan LaBonte advised the graduates to let passion play a part as they ponder the future.

“Being here tonight, you’ve proven you can learn in the classroom, and the beauty of an education at Central Maine Community College is that the faculty keeps their eye on the application of that knowledge outside the four walls of a lab or lecture hall,” LaBonte said. “The first lesson in the art of whatever you find passion in will be to muster all the creativity you have and apply it. Second lesson is to repeat.”

Lack of passion won’t likely be an issue for most of these graduates. For Potter, graduation night was the culmination of a long mission to rebuild her life.

“After my divorce I was in a really hard spot,” said the mother of children ages 3, 8 and 9. “I figured it was time to go and get a career.”

She started in the Lewiston Adult Education program where a scholarship helped launch the next phase of her education. She began her studies at CMCC in 2015 in the culinary arts program, in which she earned a certificate with high honors.

She then enrolled in the restaurant management associate degree program, holding down a pair of jobs while collecting more awards — she was presented with the “Yes I Can” single parent award last year — and completing the program, again, at the top of the class.

“I did it all with A’s and B’s,” Potter said. “Nothing lower than a B.”

Jenkins, meanwhile, was breezing through his courses when a medical problem threatened to end his scholastic career — and his life.

While being treated for a lifelong condition that leaves excessive fluid in the brain, Jenkins’ lungs started to collapse, soaking up blood and other bodily liquids. The situation quickly went from bad to worse.

“I ended up dying on the table,” Jenkins said Thursday, “but they were able to bring me back.”

The medical crisis knocked him off his feet and Jenkins had to undergo lung therapy to help heal the damage. In spite of that, he wanted to go back to CMCC and rejoin his classmates.

“I tried to go back to my classes,” Jenkins said. “The doctors told me I couldn’t go back to the on-campus classes for at least a month.”

Undaunted, Jenkins continued his studies online and returned to live classes as soon as he could.

On Thursday night, he was at the Colisee to collect his diploma in criminal justice, one of more than 580 men and women who made up the school’s largest graduating class of all time.

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Melissa Ann Potter and Deion Jenkins at the CMCC graduation ceremony Thursday night at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston.