Meet the Rio Salado student graduating with bachelors degree [Video]

TEMPE, AZ (AZFamily) — An Arizona community college district is going to be marking a milestone this week at graduation.

On Thursday, May 2, Rio Salado College will have its first bachelor’s degree graduates walk across the stage.

There are 270 students enrolled in bachelor’s programs at Rio Salado and there are 2,800 enrolled in bachelor’s programs across the 10 colleges in the Maricopa County Community College District.

Among them is Rheanan Heller, 24. Heller started her time at Rio Salado working in a call center in 2019.

“All day, every day, I would get students telling me about their stories. How they never thought they could go back to school and finally it dawned on me that I could go back to school,” Heller told Arizona’s Family. Heller went on to earn two associate degrees.

By 2021, then-Gov. Doug Ducey passed a law in Arizona that allowed community colleges to offer some …