Ray Edge will receive his associate degree in human services tonight at Edgecombe Community College's graduation.

Edge, 51, completed his classes in December, and after three and half years of study, he will receive his diploma at the 6 p.m. ceremony.

He said his work is "not over once I receive my associate degree," though.

"There's a new level that I have to face up with, a new challenge in the work force."

That's because Edge is legally blind, a result of the eye disease glaucoma. He was first diagnosed with the disease in 1977 while he was in the Army Reserves.

His condition progressed slowly enough so that with corrective lenses, he was able to drive 10 years after the first diagnosis; he was ordered to turn in his license in 1987.

When he began classes at ECC's Rocky Mount campus in August 2003, Edge said his instructors were able to make enough accommodations to the extent that he did not need a note-taker.

"The first semester I was at Edgecombe ... I was taking classes like math and English. There wasn't a lot of material that was written on the board," he said, that he needed in order to keep up with the rest of the class.

The first time he needed a note-taker was when he took his first psychology class. Edge said it did not take the college much longer than two weeks to assign him a note-taker when he needed one.

Once his classmates got to know him, that he took his studies seriously, Edge said "a large percent of the students were really accommodating" to him in his studies.

Some of his college friends even gave him rides to and from classes.

"I developed a real and lasting relationship with a lot of the students, the younger and the older" ones, Edge said.

Outside of the friends he has made, Edge feels his success has increased awareness of blind students in ECC classrooms and elsewhere.

"I feel like that since going back to school, it opened doors for me, but also for people behind me," who will receive their education after him, Edge said.

When he is not job-hunting, Edge's hobbies include active involvement in various non-profit organizations, including the Nash and Edgecombe County chapter of the Federation of the Blind. He has also taught a men's class at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Rocky Mount for the last 13 years.