Mike Garrett needed to make money.

Both turned to Durham Technical Community College. They're among 560 students receiving associate degrees, diplomas and certificates tonight at the Durham Performing Arts Center downtown. Another 170 GED and 40 Adult High School graduates will also receive diplomas.

This year's commencement speaker is N.C. Community College System President Scott Ralls, who succeeded Martin Lancaster and was president of Craven Community College from 2002 through 2008.

The Charlotte native holds a bachelor of science from UNC and master's and doctoral degrees in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of Maryland. His research there focused on technology implementation, workforce training and issues affecting older workers.

Like many of tonight's graduates, Clemens, 19, is working her way through college.

She says she could not have afforded the debt of a four-year university. But she admits friends and even an adviser at East Chapel Hill High School didn't understand her choice.

"It wasn't the best feeling; a lot of them criticized what I was doing," she said. "After taking a few classes, I stopped caring."

"I met so many people, some of the teachers were from N.C. State, Duke. It made me realize it doesn't matter where you go as much as the education you get."

Clemens will now attend UNC-Chapel Hill, part of the Carolina Students Excellence Program that guarantees admission for Durham Tech students with a 3.0 GPA.

Graduating student Mike Garrett gets to wear a gold tassel tonight as an honors student with a 3.92 GPA.

Garrett, 48, is one of a dozen students, from an initial class of 23 or 24, who started in his respiratory therapy program.

The former social worker and salesman was looking for something more "recession proof" and was planning to study nursing when program director Richard Miller told him about respiratory therapy. Graduates of Durham Tech's program administer aerosol medications, set up ventilators and treat people with cystic fibrosis and other airway secretions.

It's not a career Garrett could have envisioned as an undergraduate at the University of Houston, where he says he could barely stay awake during classes and graduated with a 2.5 GPA.

Two years later, he learned why he'd been having so much trouble.

He had sleep apnea, a condition in which blocked airways wake people up hundreds of times a night, often without their knowing it.

Now, as a respiratory therapist, Garrett may one day work with other people with apnea, setting them up with machines like he has to aid his breathing and allow him to sleep through the night.

Garrett, who worked full time in bed assignment at UNC Hospitals, has already passed his certification test and interviewed for a therapist job.

As for that possible nursing career, no thanks.

"I'd so much rather deal with mucus that all that other stuff nurses have to deal with," he said.