A-B Tech Community College will hold its 2026 Commencement ceremony Saturday, May 16, at 2:00 p.m. at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in downtown Asheville. Sharon Decker, senior advisor to Governor Josh Stein’s Advisory Committee on Western North Carolina Recovery and former NC Secretary of Commerce, will deliver the commencement address.
“We always look forward to commencement as the highlight of our academic year when we gather to celebrate our graduates,” said A-B Tech President John Gossett, who will preside over the ceremony. “The Class of 2026 is resilient and impressive. Most of them work, many have families, and they all experienced a pandemic and a hurricane, but they persisted. More than half of our graduates are also first-generation college students who are transforming their own lives and the lives of their families for generations to come.”
A-B Tech will award 871 degrees and diplomas for the 2025-26 academic year (fall, spring, and summer semesters), and approximately 400 graduates will cross the stage on Saturday. Highlights include:
- University transfer degrees awarded to students who intend to pursue four-year degrees: 191 Associate in Arts, 73 Associate in Science, 18 Associate in Fine Arts, 3 Associate in Engineering, and 9 Associate in Arts: Teacher Preparation
- Associate in Applied Sciences (AAS) degrees were awarded to 446 students who intend to pursue careers in a range of fields spanning aviation to welding. A-B Tech trains healthcare professionals, pilots, paramedics, firefighters, police officers, construction workers, bakers, chefs, brewers, hospitality managers, accountants, office administrators, medical coding specialists, IT professionals, machinists, welders, and more.
- High school students who will earn associate degrees from A-B Tech before they receive high school diplomas. Included are 61students from Buncombe County and Madison County high schools, as well as home-schooled students, who take college courses for free through the NC Career & College Promise high school dual enrollment program. The high school graduates include:
- Buncombe County Early College, 37
- Maidson County Early College, 18
- TC Roberson, 5
- Nesbitt Discovery Academy, 4
- Five graduates from the Western Correctional Center for Women who will receive Social and Human Services Technology AAS degrees with honors.
- First graduate earning an Artificial Intelligence (AI) AAS degree. The AI program began two years ago
Learn more about A-B Tech’s 2026 outstanding graduates at Commencement Profiles.
The commencement ceremony will be signed by American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters, closed captioned, and live-streamed on A-B Tech’s YouTube Channel, @abtech_cc. The college will also post photo galleries and videos on A-B Tech social media accounts after the ceremony.