BERLIN — It was a family affair at the 45th commencement exercises of the White Mountains Community College, held on the lawn of the Berlin campus. Proud grandparents, beaming mothers and fathers and overjoyed friends and cousins, all crowded the aisles to get that winning photo of their new graduate.

In the close-knit North Country community, that meant stepping into the aisle multiple times for some, as they were there to celebrate the graduation of more than one family member among the 160 graduates of a graduating class of more than 200 who participated in Friday's event.

Standing with his grandmother to the left of the podium, four-year-old Ethan Dube of Berlin squealed with delight when he saw his father, Nicholas Dube, walk across the stage and receive his diploma in applied technologies. After getting a quick hug from his dad, Ethan went back to his seat.

Ethan wasn't the only child in the audience. The youthful sounds of children of all ages, including babes in arms, punctuated the remarks of the commencement speakers. Far from a distraction, the children's voices added to the festiveness of the event.

“It's wonderful so many children are here,” U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) said during her commencement address. Ayotte recounted that she couldn't remember her own commencement speaker, but did remember being excited and nervous. It is a time, she said, when the future stretches out to you with endless possibilities.

Remarking that the future is not a straight line, she said, “It's really how you react to the bends in the road that makes all the difference.”

New Hampshire's former attorney general held the audience's attention as she recounted her career path. She had thought, she said, that her career in law would be a quiet career in private practice. At her first job at a law firm, a more experienced lawyer asked if she could cover for him at a basic court hearing.

It was a criminal case, she continued, and the firm was defending a man accused of multiple bank robberies up and down the East Coast, which included two murders.

“I was over my head and I was scared,” she said. The client, she said, a tough-looking guy, appeared terrified when she told him she had no court experience.

She told him, “Don't worry, I'm not your only lawyer.” This seemingly bend in the road of her career, she said, actually helped her discover her passion. After gaining more criminal case experience and applying several times, she got a job at the state Attorney General's Office.

“You need passion about what you do every single day,” she told the graduates, also urging them to push themselves out of their comfort zones and look at career detours as opportunities. Her passion, she said, is public service.

Keeping with the family-theme, Marie Allbee, student senate president and the mother of two, and Samantha Roy, Phi Theta Kappa president, gave inspiring remarks to their fellow graduates.

Degrees were given out in allied arts, applied technologies, commerce and industry, education, arts and sciences and nursing.

Dr. Ross Gittell, chancellor of the Community College System of New Hampshire, presented Donna Briere, assistant professor in the medical assistant program, the Chancellor's Teaching Excellence Award, and Katherine Doherty, director of learning resources, the Service Excellence Award.

Jasmine Montminy received the President's Award for highest class standing, and Norman Carreau received the Newman Civic Fellows Award.

WMCC President Katherine Eneguess presented Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Sorum, who works as a paralegal for the staff judge advocate at the Joint Forces Headquarters, New Hampshire National Guard, in Concord, his degree in criminal justice from the University of Maryland, University College.

“Christopher also serves as a casualty assistance officer above and beyond his normal duties,” Eneguess said. “It is in this role that he was serving for a local family who had lost their son when he chose to remain in New Hampshire and not go to his graduation (in Maryland).”

Eneguess said she had received legal permission from Maryland to present the degree to Sorum, the first in his family to complete a bachelor's degree.