PC to host 126th commencement May 9
May 5, 2009
The 126th commencement of Presbyterian College will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 9, on the West Plaza.
The traditional outdoor graduation ceremony will include comments from Outstanding Senior Nick Roosevelt of Clinton and professor of history Dr. Rick Heiser, the college’s 2009 Professor of the Year.
PC will present two honorary degrees this spring. An honorary Doctor of Divinity degree will be presented to the Rev. Tammy Brown. The honorary Doctor of Public Service degree will be given to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Brown, the senior pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Charleston, is a 1988 graduate of Lyon College in Batesville, Ark., and a 1994 graduate of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Tex. She is a founder of The Hands of Christ, a ministry between Westminster and Zion-Olivet Presbyterian churches to provide clothing and school supplies for children who live in poverty in the Charleston area.
Graham, who was elected to the Senate in 2002, is a native of Central and a graduate of the University of South Carolina and the USC School of Law. A colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, Graham first entered the national spotlight in 1994 when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as the first Republican to represent South Carolina’s Third Congressional District since 1877.
Graham has been invited also to speak at PC’s commencement exercises.
Commencement weekend at PC begins on Friday, May 8, with the annual Reserve Officer Commissioning and Hall of Fame Induction ceremonies at 2 p.m. in Edmunds Hall. In addition to commissioning senior cadets as second lieutenants in the armed forces, the college’s Highlander Battalion will induct Brig. Gen. Rick Porter, a 1978 graduate of PC, into the college’s ROTC Hall of Fame.
PC also will celebrate the second annual New Teacher Induction ceremony at 3:30 p.m. on Friday in the Mabry-Smith-Yonce Center. Eighteen seniors who have completed their student teaching will be inducted as new members of the education profession. Debbie Simpson, an English teacher at Laurens District High School and the 2008 Teacher of the Year in Laurens County School District 55, will be the guest speaker at the event.
The Class of 2009 will present its senior class gift at 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Alumni Green on the West Plaza.
Baccalaureate will be held at 7 p.m. Friday evening in Belk Auditorium. The Rev. Charles C. Heyward Sr., a PC trustee and the pastor at St. James Presbyterian Church in Charleston, will be the Baccalaureate speaker.
posted by Hal Milam