Graduation Preview

GRADUATION PREVIEW BY EDDIE BYNOG
Excited that their day has finally came, 428 Southern University Baton Rouge students are gearing up to take part in the university’s annual fall commencement exercises that will take place Friday, December 16 at 1030 AM. Held in the F.G. Clark Activity Center, students cheered on by family, friends and fellow classmates will receive their baccalaureate, masters, or doctorate degrees at the Fall ceremony. With 44 students taking part in the ceremony from the Southern University School of Nursing, the school will graduate more students this commencement than any other at the Baton Rouge campus. Mass communication major and graduating senior Saveta Williams of Baton Rouge, Louisiana is one graduate who, like many others, is excited to walk across the stage and receive her diploma in just a few short weeks. “I’m so excited, I just mailed out my graduation invitations,” Williams said “and I’m so motivated to seek every opportunity that comes my way.”
After graduation Williams is planning on attending law school. Williams hopes that her mass communications public relations degree will add certain
skills, required to handling big cases.
“I’m going to be Olivia Pope out here,” Williams finished. Gershondalyn Holland is also a mass communication major from Baton Rouge, Louisiana
just as excited to receive her Bachelor’s degree.
“It’s cliché but all the hard work and sacrifice really is coming together,” Holland said. After graduation Holland plans on working with City Year, a non-profit organization that
mentors at risk youth in the Baton Rouge area.
Holland also added that she plans on further developing her brand, Dig The Creative, a creative strategy umbrella with the purposes of branding, special events and non-profit. “I’m so excited to get this over with and really start branding me,” Holland said. Students attending or participating in 2016’s Fall commencement will have the opportunity to hear the words of this year’s graduation speaker, civil-rights activist and broadcasting executive Xernona Clayton Brady. Brady, 86, is an alumn of Tennessee State University and University of Chicago. Brady will share with the grads a wealth of experience and accolades, including her time as a talk show host, media executive and Founder of the Trumpet Awards. According to their website, the Trumpet Awards is an annual acknowledgement of African – American entertainers, humanitarians, and political individuals. Brady will also be rewarded with an honorary doctorate degree at the ceremony. Students participating in Fall commencement exercises are asked to attend practice Thursday, December 15 at 10 AM in the activity center.