Spring commencement marks many special milestones
Kim Chaudoin | 615.966.6494 |
Graduation day is a day that many students eagerly anticipate during their pursuit of a college degree.
On Saturday, May 2, that anticipation became a reality for 781 students who participated in spring commencement — the largest number in university history.
Most students received their diplomas after four or five years of studying, taking classes, completing internships and more.
But for one Lipscomb graduate, walking across the stage to receive his college diploma was an event that he anticipated for 47 years. On Saturday, that dream became a reality.
In front of a crowd of about 5,000 that included soon-to-be college graduates, their families and friends, Harry Russell Kellam received his undergraduate diploma.
Kellam, who completed his coursework in 1968 to become Lipscomb’s first African American graduate, was not able to walk across the stage at that time due to a delay in transfer credits being recorded. He was then drafted for military service and his desire to be able to participate in a graduation ceremony faded as he enlisted in the Army to fulfill his duty to the country.
On Saturday, he proudly took that long-awaited walk across the stage to a thundering standing ovation and accepted his original diploma, that he had received in the mail back in 1968, from Lipscomb president L. Randolph Lowry.
“I am really overjoyed,” said Kellam. “To have my family here with me today is very special. This is something I never expected to happen. Lipscomb means a lot to me. I’ve always thought very highly of Lipscomb. Every time I hear about the school, it makes me feel good to be a graduate of Lipscomb.”
He shared a bit of advice for the new graduates in the audience.
“My advice would be is that once you get a degree from a school of this stature, it motivates you to think about your behavior, your attitude, your response when you interact with people,” he said. “You reflect the things that you have been taught here as you go out into the world.”
In festivities that began with the graduate and doctoral commencement at 10:30 a.m. and ended with undergraduate commencement at 3 p.m., 367 undergraduate degrees, 250 graduate degrees and 40 graduate certificates were awarded to May graduates and 80 undergraduate degrees and 79 graduate degrees were awarded to August graduates. The largest number of graduate degrees awarded was the Master of Education degree with 98 recipients and the largest number of undergraduate degrees was the Bachelor of Nursing with 69 graduates.
Another highlight of the undergraduate commencement was entertainer Pat Boone, a 1952 Lipscomb Academy graduate, leading the singing of the institution’s alma mater, which he composed more than 30 years ago.
“It’s full circle for me today. Thomas Wolfe said ‘you can’t go home again,’ but he was wrong,” said Boone. “The Lord has blessed me since my Lipscomb days. I got to know him here and I committed my life to him here. I’ve been through many trials, detours and crisis. And I did not create my career, He did. I’ve held for dear life to that career to try to keep being His guy wherever He may lead me.”
A highlight of the graduate and doctoral commencement was the awarding of the Master of Management, Master of Information and Analytics and Master of Science in Health Care Informatics degrees for the first time.
Lowry recognized the story of one the recipients of those new programs, Zarina Gumatova, a candidate for the Master of Management degree, who came to Lipscomb from Uzbekistan and wants to start her own fashion label. Her story was featured in the Tennessean the morning of graduation. (Click here to read.)
“You are going into a world that is exciting and invigorating,” said Lowry. “We hope you are taking the confidence, character and insight you gained here into that world. Take all of that confidence, and all of that character and think about lives of service. The most satisfying things you ever do will be things you aren’t paid for.”
Students receiving master’s and doctoral degrees were also challenged to pursue an extraordinary life during the professional charge.
“This past year I interviewed almost 150 grad schools applicants. Many said they wanted something more: more confidence, more purpose, and some said more money,” Allison Duke, associate dean of the College of Business, told the graduates. “To achieve more, you often have to give more. You have given of yourselves in ways you never expected" in hopes that it would pay off later.
“Today we celebrate your achievement, but we also challenge to begin your new journey of the pursuit of the extraordinary,” she continued. “Take the confidence you have earned here and write your own story.”
The newly minted college graduates expressed gratitude for their experiences at Lipscomb University.
“The community at Lipscomb is family-like. I’ve loved that and feel very much a part of this university and this community,” said Chris Saunders (’13) of Nashville, who received a Master of Education degree at the ceremony. “The teachers here care a lot. You really feel like you’re not just another student… that they care for you and really want the best for you.”
“Lipscomb has become my safe haven,” said Sarah Robinson, a history teaching major from Lawrenceville, Ga. “I grew up in a really close family and then moved four hours away to come to college. I needed people to love me the way my family did, and I found that here in my friends and professors. It became my family when I didn’t have my real family here.”
“Lipscomb has been a great experience for me,” said Sam Schoenheit, a history teaching major from Charlotte, N.C. Schoenheit, a veteran who was shot in the head during a security patrol while stationed in Afghanistan in 2008, attended Lipscomb through the Sentinels of Freedom organization and Lipscomb’s Yellow Ribbon Program.
“I needed a school the size of Lipscomb. I don’t have any family here. So my fellow students and people here at Lipscomb have embraced me and made it like home. I can’t thank the Veteran’s Services office enough for working so hard for me and other veterans here. I couldn’t have made it without them.”
Graduation is a time of mixed emotions for professors as well as students.
“It’s really very bittersweet,” said Kent Gallaher, professor of biology and chair and director of graduate studies for the department of biology. “I told our students at a graduation dinner last night that our relationship will change forever once they cross that stage. Right now we are as close as we are ever going to be. We are really excited that we are moving on, but we are also sad that we are losing a relationship that we’ve invested years in.”
Gallaher said the faculty hopes “our students enjoy great life, not lifestyle.”
“And there’s a big difference there,” he said. “We hope they will honor God with their vocation and we know that when you honor God with everything in your life He will honor you and give you the kind of life that other people will be envious of. “
Mike Fernandez, dean of the College of Entertainment & the Arts, agrees.
“We’ve spent four years building a really good relationship with students and watched them grow in so many profound ways,” he said. “We’re proud of them for achieving so much and graduating. But we don’t want them to go. We want them to stay.”
Fernandez said that he hopes graduates take with them three things as they leave Lipscomb.
“Skillset … that they’ve learned to be the best of the best in their fields. Character … that they become a guiding light in the marketplace in whatever they do. Love … we hope they know that we love them. This is a lifelong partnership. We want them to know that when they walk out of these doors that they can come back at any time. We are here to mentor and guide and to listen and to share in a lifetime of achievement for them.”
-Photos by Kristi Jones, Video by Josh Shaw