Carey Holds Record-Breaking August Commencement
More than 450 William Carey University students received degrees during the largest August commencement in the university's history on Friday, August 7 and Saturday, August 8 in Smith Auditorium on the Hattiesburg campus.
During the Friday ceremony, 26 students received the Ph.D. in nursing education and administration degree. Three students received the Ph.D. in higher education administration degree and six students received the Specialist in Education degree. The speaker for the ceremony was Dr. Chuck Benigno, superintendent of the Laurel School District.
Three ceremonies were held on Saturday. The first ceremony was for graduate students from the Hattiesburg campus with Jermaine Brown, principal of Hattiesburg High School, as speaker. The second ceremony was for undergraduate students from the Hattiesburg campus with Dr. Steven Bishop, president of Southwest Mississippi Community College in McComb, as speaker. The final ceremony was for graduate and undergraduate students from the Tradition campus with Dr. Argile Smith, pastor of Parkway Baptist Church in Biloxi, as speaker.
The four ceremonies, combined with five commencement ceremonies in May, brought the total number of Carey graduates during the 2014-2015 academic year to nearly 1,200 students.