UGA to award degrees to about 4,850 at commencement ceremonies May 9

The University of Georgia will confer degrees on about 4,850 undergraduate and graduate students at spring commencement ceremonies May 9.

An estimated 3,700 undergraduates will be eligible to receive bachelor’s degrees at the undergraduate ceremony at 9:30 a.m. The ceremony will be held in Sanford Stadium unless weather conditions are deemed to be severe, in which case the ceremony will be held in Stegeman Coliseum in two sessions, beginning at 9:30 and 11:30 a.m.

Severe weather is defined as rain accompanied by high winds, thunder and lightning. If rain is falling but conditions are not considered severe, candidates will be given a poncho to wear during the ceremony. There will not be a student processional and candidates will go directly to their school’s or college’s designated seating section on the field.

A decision to move to Stegeman Coliseum will be made by 6:30 a.m. and will be posted on the UGA home page, http://www.uga.edu/, by 7 a.m. Local radio stations will be notified of the move but may not be able to broadcast the information because their weekend operations are computerized.

About 1,155 candidates for master’s, doctoral and specialist in education degrees will be eligible to participate in the ceremony for graduate students at 2:30 p.m. in Stegeman Coliseum.

U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston of Savannah will speak at the undergraduate ceremony. Kingston, who received an economics degree from UGA in 1978, is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and has been a strong ally for UGA in obtaining grants and appropriations from federal agencies for research in agriculture and science and for construction of major facilities.

Mary Virginia Terry of Jacksonville, Fla., will receive the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the ceremony. Terry and her late husband, Herman, have been major supporters of UGA for 55 years and are namesakes of the Terry College of Business. Mrs. Terry is an emeritus trustee of the Arch Foundation of the University of Georgia.

The student speaker for the undergraduate ceremony will be Mary Catherine McLean of Moultrie, who will receive a degree in history. A HOPE Scholar and Dean’s List student, McLean has studied at Oxford University in England and was on the Student Government Association executive board. She was president of Phi Alpha Theta history honor society and was a Leadership UGA Fellow.

Twenty-five seniors who have maintained perfect 4.0 grade point averages will be recognized as First Honor Graduates.

The undergraduate ceremony will be broadcast in the Tate Student Center Theatre and on televisions in the student center. It will also be broadcast on Charter cable channel 15 and will be streamed live on the internet from the UGA home page.

The speaker for the ceremony for graduate students will be Stan Collender, a partner at Qorvis Communications. Collender has a 30-year background in financial and public affairs communications and is an expert on federal fiscal and monetary policies. He writes a column on fiscal matters for the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call and is founder of “Capital Gains and Games,” a popular financial and political blog.

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Georgia State to host two commencement ceremonies May 9

Georgia State University’s 94th commencement will usher in a new way for how the university confers degrees. Starting this semester, GSU will host two ceremonies.

A Ph.D. commencement and hooding ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. on May 9 in the GSU Sports Arena, followed by the bachelor, master and specialist commencement ceremony at 2 p.m. in the Georgia Dome.

“We felt it was appropriate to recognize doctoral students with a smaller, more intimate hooding ceremony in the morning,” GSU President Mark Becker said. “Both occasions will be times of great celebration honoring the hard work that went into realizing such an important goal.”

Georgia State will confer 94 doctoral degrees and 2,242 bachelor, master and specialist degrees, for a total of 3,037 expected graduates this spring.

The keynote speaker for the afternoon ceremony will be Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, the founding dean and first president of Morehouse School of Medicine. With the exception of his tenure as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1989 to 1993, Dr. Sullivan was president of Morehouse School of Medicine for more than two decades.

The speaker at the Ph.D. ceremony will be Peter Lindsay, associate professor of political science and philosophy as well as the director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Georgia State. Lindsay is the author of “Creative Individualism” and numerous academic articles on subjects such as 19th century political economic theory, contemporary property rights, Lincoln on secession and the role of reason in judgments of conscience.

The spring ceremony is also notable because it is Becker’s first as GSU president and Provost Ron Henry’s last commencement before his retirement.

“I'm pleased to have been part of a successful ongoing transition of Georgia State to a major urban research university,” Henry said. “Growth in the quality and size of the student body, plus the growth in quality and depth of faculty scholarship, has been gratifying.”

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About 2,260 Eligible to Receive Degrees at UGA Commencement Ceremonies Dec. 19

About 2,260 University of Georgia students will be eligible to receive degrees at UGA's fall semester commencement ceremonies Dec. 19 in Stegeman Coliseum.

Some 1,650 seniors will be eligible to participate in the ceremony for undergraduates at 9:30 a.m. Donald Eastman, president of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla., will be the speaker. Before going to Eckerd in 2001, Eastman was at UGA for 10 years where he served as vice president for development and university relations and vice president for strategic planning and public affairs.

An estimated 614 candidates for master's, doctoral and specialist in education degrees are eligible to participate in the graduate ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Harriet Mayor Fulbright, president of the J. William and Harriet Fulbright Center in Arlington, Va., will speak. The widow of the late U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright, Harriet Fulbright is an educator and arts advocate who lectures worldwide on the importance of international education and collaboration.

The student speaker for the undergraduate ceremony will be Abi Oyegun of Lithonia, who will graduate with degrees in psychology and sociology. Oyegun volunteers with Students Helping Teachers, teaches in UGA's McPhaul Child Development Center and works with an organization called Invisible Children that helps raise awareness of underprivileged children around the world.

Also during the undergraduate ceremony, nine students will be recognized as First Honor Graduates for having maintained a perfect 4.0 grade point average. They are Katie L. Barter, Peachtree City; Caitlin A. Burns, Duluth; Shannon Chen, Athens; Sarah M. Craig, Lawrenceville; Christina L. Dobbs, Calhoun; Sion Kim, Hartwell; Caryn D. Rosing, Atlanta; Channell V. Singh, Hinesville; and Lauren E. Williams, Athens.

Because Dec. 19 is a Friday, a normal workday, some of the usual parking patterns on South Campus near the coliseum will be adjusted. The South Parking Deck (zone S-11) and Carlton Street Deck (zone S-15) will be open at no charge for visitors and guests attending commencement. The Hoke Smith lot (S-12) will be reserved for handicapped guests with proper handicapped placards. The McPhaul Center lot (S-10) will be reserved for members of the commencement platform party.

Both the undergraduate and graduate commencement ceremonies will be broadcast live on UGA's cable television station, channel 15 on the Charter cable system, and will be streamed in a webcast accessible via a link on UGA's Web site home page, www.uga.edu .

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NASA Astronaut Confirmed As Shorter’s December Commencement Speaker

NASA astronaut Stephanie D. Wilson will be the keynote speaker at Shorter College’s December 13 commencement ceremonies. The commencement exercises will be held at 10 a.m. and at 2 p.m. in the college’s Winthrop-King Centre.

Selected by NASA in 1996, Wilson has logged more than 28 days in space, and is a veteran of two space flights, one in 2006 and one in 2007.

In 2006, she was part of a return-to-flight test mission and assembly flight to the International Space Station. During the 13-day flight the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery tested new equipment and procedures that increase the safety of space shuttles, repaired a rail car on the International Space Station and produced never-before-seen, high-resolution images of the Shuttle during and after its July 4th launch. Wilson supported robotic arm operations for vehicle inspection, multi-purpose logistics module installation and EVAs and was responsible for the transfer of more than 28,000 pounds of supplies and equipment to the ISS.

Her 2007 mission was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This flight was a crew rotation flight, delivering 16 new crewmembers and returning with a 15-crew member team. During the STS-120 mission, the Node 2 module named “Harmony” was delivered to the International Space Station. This element opened up the capability for future international laboratories to be added to the station. In addition, the P6 Solar Array was relocated from the Z1 Truss to the end of the port side of the Integrated Truss Structure. During the re-deploy of the array, the array panels snagged and were damaged. An unplanned spacewalk was successfully performed to repair the array.

A native of Massachusetts, Wilson graduated from Taconic High School in Pittsfield in 1984 and went on to receive a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Science degree from Harvard University in 1988. She later earned a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas in 1992. She is the cousin of Shorter graduate Sandra Terry (’88), who serves as assistant vice president for the college’s Professional Studies program.

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About 1,380 Students Eligible for Degrees at UGA Summer Commencement

An estimated 1,380 students will be eligible to receive degrees at the University of Georgia’s summer commencement exercises Aug. 2 at 9:30 a.m. in Stegeman Coliseum.

The exercises are a combined ceremony for undergraduate and graduate students who complete degree requirements at the end of summer semester. About 760 candidates for bachelor’s degrees and 620 candidates for doctoral, master’s and specialist in education degrees are anticipated to be eligible to participate in the ceremony. Final numbers won’t be known until the conclusion of final exams on July 31.

Maxine Clark, a 1971 graduate of the University of Georgia and founder, chief executive and chairman of Build-A-Bear Workshop, will be the speaker for the university’s summer commencement exercises.

During Clark’s 30-year career, her ability to spot emerging retail and merchandising trends and her insight into the desires of the American consumer have generated growth for retail leaders, including department, discount and specialty stores. In 1997, she founded Build-A-Bear Workshop, a teddy-bear themed retail-entertainment experience. Today there are more than 370 Build-A-Bear Workshop stores worldwide, including company-owned stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and France, and franchise stores in Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. Build-A-Bear Workshop extended its in-store interactive experience online in 2007 with the launch of its virtual world at buildabearville.com™.

As part of the ceremony, two undergraduates will be recognized as First Honor Graduates for having maintained perfect 4.0 grade point averages on all undergraduate-level work. The students include Brian Paul-Ang Hsu from Evans who is graduating with a bachelor of business administration degree in finance and management. Additionally, Hannah Megan Westmoreland from Gainesville is graduating with a bachelor of science degree in biology.

The ceremony will be broadcast live on University Cable Channel 15 and streamed live on the UGA Web site.

Fall semester classes at UGA begin Aug. 18 and a commencement will be held Dec. 19 for students who complete degree requirements this fall.

Kim Osborne
University of Georgia
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West Georgia to Hold Commencement Saturday

The University of West Georgia summer commencement will be held in the Campus Center Gymnasium at 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m. Undergraduates from the College of Arts and Sciences will be awarded degrees at the 9 a.m. ceremony. The noon ceremony will feature undergraduates receiving their degrees from the Richards College of Business. At 3 p.m., students earning their degrees from the College of Education and the Graduate School will receive their diploma.

Yong Suh, a graduate of the UWG Honors College and Advanced Academy of Georgia, will speak at the 9 a.m. ceremony. Suh is currently a healthcare analyst focusing on pharmaceutical and biotechnology investments at Noonday Asset Management, a global multi-strategy hedge fund.

As an undergraduate student at UWG, Suh was one of only four undergraduates in the nation selected to serve as a National Institutes of Health research fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Francis Collins, then the director of the Human Genome Project. Following his graduation from UWG in 2001, he worked in Collins’ lab researching the genetics of type 2 diabetes.
Before embarking on a career in finance, Suh was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University and the only Marshall Scholarship recipient in UWG’s history. He completed two master’s degrees at Oxford in less than two years, graduating with a M.Sc. in research in pharmacology and an MBA the age of 23.

Dr. David H. Hovey will speak at the noon ceremony. Hovey served as dean of the Richards College of Business at UWG from 1984 to 1999 and as professor of management until his retirement this summer.

During his years as dean, the RCOB achieved accreditation of its graduate programs and separate accreditation of accounting undergraduate and graduate programs from the prestigious Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSBI). Hovey also established the Small Business Development Center on campus and helped create a consortium to offer Georgia’s first online MBA degree. Other programs initiated during his tenure include the International Banking and Finance Study Abroad Program, the annual Economic Forecast Breakfast and the Merryl and Hardy McCalman Executive Roundtable.
Hovey was also instrumental in securing the donation from the Roy Richards family that led to the college’s naming as the “Richards” College of Business. Beginning this fall, he will continue his university service by teaching part time in the RCOB.

Dr. Brent M. Snow will be the commencement speaker for the 3 p.m. ceremony. Snow is the associate vice president for Academic Affairs, a professor of counseling and educational psychology at UWG and has served as the chair of the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology for 16 years.

Snow and faculty in the counseling and educational psychology department earned recognition as pioneers and national leaders in school counseling reform in 2002 by the Education Trust, a nonprofit educational organization based in Washington, D.C. Under his leadership, the department was also one of only six university departments in the United States to gain funding from the Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund to transform graduate-level training programs in school counseling. The $450,000 grant is the largest private grant in UWG’s history.
Approximately 500 students will graduate with a degree this summer. For more information, visit the university website at westga.edu.