A young Misty Cooper arrived at Allen Community College in January 1998, with many questions whirling around her head.
The biggest was where to sit.
?I was home-schooled through high school, so our seats were around the dining room table,? she said Saturday.
Where she sat, she explained, depended on which sibling she was getting along with that day.
When she entered her first ?real? classroom, Roger Campbell?s sociology class, it seemed all the seats were occupied.
But there seemed to be one friendly face, a young man who pointed to an available seat next to him.
Cooper nervously took the seat.
Six years later, Misty Cooper and that friendly young man, Greg Watt, were married.
?It worked out well for me,? Cooper Watt said to a gymnasium full of laughter at Saturday?s ACC commencement ceremony. ?Sometimes you do find family where you least expect it.?
Taylor Stout receives her college diploma from Allen Community College Trustee Ken McGuffin Saturday.
Cooper Watt, who went on to graduate with honors at Kansas State University and the Tulsa School of Law. She and her husband opened a private law practice in 2018 in Kansas City where she specializes in corporate law and he in criminal defense.
She was tapped as ACC?s distinguished alumnus for 2019, and thus invited to deliver the keynote address.
Attending Allen changed Cooper Watt?s life in other ways, she noted, from the encouragement and instruction she received from faculty, including several who are still there today.
She lauded the arrival of Tony and Terri Piazza in the 1999-2000 school year, and their launch of the ACC drama program.
?It was the best year and most fun year I?ve ever had, because of the Piazzas,? Cooper Watt said.
And while much has changed physically ? the school?s iconic fish pond commons area now has furniture, and the school?s new Student Center is a gem, she noted ? some things haven?t.
?I find it amazing that 20 years later (ACC President) John Masterson and Tom Cruise still look exactly like they did in 1998,? she joked.