(Butler, PA) Thirty-seven percent of Butler County Community College’s 464-member Class of 2023 were age 25 or older, including a 46-year-old chamber of commerce member who earned his first post-secondary credential and graduated with honors.
Peter Kupas, of Butler, a married father with two children and co-owner of the Vintage Coffeehouse, Butler, received an associate degree in business management during BC3’s 55th commencement May 17.
Nichole Wheeler, 47, of Butler, a married mother with two children and co-owner of Little Bugs Daycare and Preschool in West Sunbury, also earned her first post-secondary credential during BC3’s 2023 commencement, as did Gregory Stewart, 38, of Mars.
Wheeler achieved an associate degree in general studies; Stewart, in park and recreation management; and Christina Lennon, 50, of Middlesex Township, in engineering technology with computer-aided design and drafting.
Business management, engineering technology with computer-aided design and drafting, and park and recreation management are among BC3 career programs in which students can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation.

“I wasn’t going to advance any higher or any further. I decided if I wanted to take the next step, I would need to get a degree of some sort."
Peter Kupas, BC3 graduate
Kupas, a member of the Butler County Chamber of Commerce and Butler Downtown, graduated with a grade-point average between 3.5 and 3.74 and achieved magna cum laude recognition.
He began to pursue BC3’s business management degree as a part-time student four years ago and during the latter part of a 24-year career at a machine shop in Lower Burrell, where he worked most recently as a quality and production manager who supervised 20 employees.
“I wasn’t going to advance any higher or any further,” Kupas said. “I decided if I wanted to take the next step, I would need to get a degree of some sort. I’ve always respected BC3. People who are involved in the community, so many of them have graduated from BC3 and have had great jobs and basically came out of school debt-free.
“That was the course I wanted to take too.”
Seventy-five percent of BC3’s Class of 2023 graduated debt-free, according to Juli Louttit, the college’s director of financial aid.
Kupas is among them.
The 1995 graduate of Kiski Area High School began to work part-time at the machine shop when he and his wife, Angela, opened their business on South Main Street. Kupas retired from the machine shop in March. The Vintage Coffeehouse employs eight and marked its first anniversary May 23.
“Some of my generation who went to a technical school or who went into some sort of job, and not a career, want to go back and get something to further their education,” Kupas said, “and look for a new job or a better job.”
BC3’s business management curriculum includes courses in financial accounting and in human resource management.
“I do a lot of the behind-the-scenes things (at Vintage Coffeehouse),” Kupas said. “When I was doing the journal entries, with the credits and debits, before I had zero clue why or where or what they were. … And just that accounting class alone has given me an understanding of why I do it, where it goes and what it goes to.
“The experience I’ve gained through schooling is going to help me with this business.”

“Now that I have my degree, I will be able to be our director. I will not have to hire a director anymore.”
Nichole Wheeler, BC3 graduate
Community colleges are known for educating nontraditional-aged students, said Dr. Nick Neupauer, president of BC3.
The students’ success, Neupauer said, “also speaks to the counseling, the advising and the great staff, including faculty, who give attention to this nontraditional-aged population.”
Wheeler has co-owned Little Bugs Daycare and Preschool in West Sunbury with her daughter, Alexis, for 2½ years, employs six and graduated from BC3 debt-free.
“Now that I have my degree, I will be able to be our director,” Wheeler said of her business, which has 18 children ranging in age from 3 months to 10 years. “I will not have to hire a director anymore.”
Her associate degree from BC3 will allow her to progress from having a provisional license to a full license, she said, and to save her business up to $35,000 a year in the salary she had paid to those who held the director position.
“It has definitely changed my life,” Wheeler said. “Now I can be my own director and I don’t have to pay somebody else.”
Wheeler began pursuit of an associate degree from BC3 after graduating from Butler in 1994. The grandmother returned to BC3 in December and completed her final six classes.
“It’s never too late,” Wheeler said. “I think more and more people are realizing that having a degree does benefit you. For me and my family, it was a huge benefit for me to go back to school and finish my degree.”

... it’s always nice to have that achievement, that you did something, even if you are like me, almost 40 years old."
Gregory Stewart, BC3 graduate
Stewart is a 2004 graduate of Pine-Richland. He enrolled at BC3 as a part-time student in 2018.
He has worked full-time in retail for the past 16 years, was “tired of having dead-end jobs” and said his achievement of earning an associate degree will set an example for his three nephews and two nieces ages 3 to 9.
“You’re always able to improve yourself, to make yourself better,” Stewart said. “If you are eager to improve yourself, and obviously I am, it’s always nice to have that achievement, that you did something, even if you are like me, almost 40 years old. You’re always pushing yourself to improve yourself, to tell the rest of your family, ‘You know, I did something.’
“I have nieces and nephews and they are always looking up to the family. I can say to them, ‘I did this the nontraditional way. When you finally figure something out, when you finally figure yourself out, go do your best.”’
Stewart graduated from BC3 debt-free and seeks a career as a park ranger.

“I decided to go back to college and get my degree so I could switch careers."
Christina Lennon, BC3 graduate

Lennon is a married mother with one child who earned a cosmetology license 15 years ago.
She is a 1991 graduate of Mars. She enrolled at BC3 in 2020 after being furloughed from her position as a CADD designer for a civil engineering firm in Moon Township during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I decided to go back to college and get my degree so I could switch careers,” Lennon said. … “It’s important to know that you can go back. It’s a lot of sacrifices on your home life by not working. But at the same time, you’re still earning something that is going to benefit the whole family eventually.”
Lennon graduated from BC3 cum laude, a distinction for those with a grade-point average between 3.25 and 3.49, and seeks a career in project management.
“Now I have the backing for it,” she said. “Now I know people will take me more seriously because you can’t accomplish that anymore if you don’t have a degree. I’m very, very proud. Very proud.”
Layne Guidotti, of Butler, was the youngest graduate in BC3’s Class of 2023 at 19 years and five months. He earned an associate degree in criminology and graduated from BC3 cum laude, as did BC3’s most-senior graduate in 2023, Maryann Henley.
Henley, of Edinburg, earned an associate degree in psychology at 66 years and seven months.
BC3 has had at least 400 graduates each of the past 14 years.
The college’s fall semester begins Aug. 21.