Southern gives graduating seniors send-off; advice

Southern University’s Career Services held a send-off for fall graduating seniors in the Cotillion Ballroom of the Smith-Brown Memorial Union Tuesday.
According to Associate Director of Career Services Julie Wessinger, the purpose of the once a year event was to simply say good-bye to the soon-to-be graduates and advise them on handling life after graduation.
“We want to honor students completing a significant milestone in their lives while giving them some practical information that will help them transfer from college to the workforce,” said Wessinger.
Being honored with having the highest grade point average in the senior class during the send-off was computer science major from Port Allen, Julian Herbert.
Along with his cumulative 3.8 GPA, Herbert is also the vice-president of the Southern chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery and has done research at the prestigious John Hopkins University.
While honored by his rank, Herbert said that he would never forget his time at Southern.
“It [Southern] was a life changing experience, a lesson in humility where I learned how to work with people and it was fun,” said Herbert who after graduation will be working with Dallas based electronics company Texas Instruments.
Speaking to the future graduates in attendance was Chancellor Kofi Lomotey, asking students to give back to the university and to look for education beyond Southern.
“Life is about choice and go out and get choices,” said Lomotey. “We’re asking that you keep in touch.”
The big speaker of the send-off came in the form of CEO of Nerjyzed Entertainment and Southern alumnus Jacqueline Beauchamp.
Video game and animation studio Nerjyzed Entertainment is best known for the hit computer game Black College Football Xperence (BCFX).
Beauchamp’s advice to those in attendance was to always stay positive and to not let people get in their way.
“You have to look, talk and act like you are a winner,” said Beauchamp. “Don’t let anything, not even you get in the way.”
After her speech, Beauchamp showed a trailer of the upcoming console version of BCFX which when released would make Nerjyzed the first black development studio to ship a game for a major video game console.
While details including price and release date weren’t announced, Beauchamp said that more information would be released during the Bayou Classic next week.
Also shown was a trailer of Nerjyzed’s documentary “Historically Black.”
Narrated by Academy Award winning actor Samual L. Jackson (“Pulp Fiction,” “The Spirit”), the documentary dives into the historical relevance and impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in America.
“Historically Black” is scheduled to air on cable/satellite channel TV One during Black History Month of next year.
Mass communications major from Dallas, Courtney McNeal, said that while she enjoyed the send-off, she felt sad by the reminder that she was on her way to graduating.
“I’m sad to depart, but I really enjoyed the event and the speaker,” said McNeal.