Morehouse Celebrates Summer Commencement July 19

Morehouse College will round out the class of 2008 when it celebrates Summer Commencement on Saturday, July 19, at 10 a.m. in the Martin Luther King Jr International Chapel.

Corey Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey, will deliver the commencement address. He will also receive the Presidential Award of Distinction. Booker has been mayor of Newark since 2006 and is only the third person to govern the city since 1970. He is the founder of Newark Now, a grassroots leadership nonprofit founded to provide Newark residents with skills, tools, and support to transform their neighborhoods.

Booker received a B.A. and M.A. from Stanford University, a B.A. in modern history from Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar and a law degree from Yale University.

He has been appointed to sit on the boards for Integrity Inc., Yale Law School, Columbia University Teachers’ College, the Black Alliance for Educational Options, North Star Academy and the International Longevity Center.

Booker has been recognized by several well known publications, including Esquire, where he was named “one of the country’s 40 Best and Brightest;” New Jersey Monthly, which named him one of New Jersey’s top 40 under 40; Black Enterprise, which named him on the Hot List, America’s Most Powerful Players under 40; and Time magazine.

Also receiving the Presidential Award of Distinction is alumnus Ronald L. Carter, Morehouse class of 1971. Carter is currently the 13th president of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C., and has been an educator for more than three decades. In fact, his career in education has taken him from South Carolina to South Africa.

Carter graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Morehouse with a B.A. in sociology and philosophy and continued his education at Boston University, where he earned both master’s and doctoral degrees in religion. While at Boston, he served as director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Career, Educational and Counseling Services; was appointed the school’s youngest dean of students; and was senior editor of Debate and Understanding, a scholarly journal for the study of minority Americans’ economic, political and social development.

Morehouse expects to graduate more than 65 students during the summer convocation.