Berry College will welcome more than 470 new graduates to the class of 2016 on Friday and Saturday.
Commencement for graduate students will be at 7 p.m. Friday, May 6, in the College Chapel. Commencement for undergraduate students will be at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 7, on the Evans Building south lawn. Out of the approximately 470 graduates, 68 are earning master degrees and 402 are earning bachelor degrees.
Fifty-six educators – the largest graduate class in Berry College history- will receive their Education Specialist graduate degrees. The graduates already hold administrative positions, such as principals, assistant principals, lead teachers, directors or coordinators and others will move into administrative positions. Through its focus on curriculum and instruction, the Education Specialist degree in Charter School of Education and Human Sciences helps develop and strengthen the professional leadership role of teachers and administrators in the schools.
The featured speaker Saturday will be former Berry College President J. Scott Colley, who served from 1998 to 2006 and is an honorary alum. Colley's leadership brought great progress to Berry in strategic planning, building alumni pride and support, fund raising, facility improvements, and faculty development and governance.
Among the significant accomplishments of his tenure was the construction of a state-of-the-art science building, which has become a model for other colleges and universities, and a new residence hall. An extensive renovation of the Krannert Student Center was completed, and the Cook Building was transformed into a home for Berry’s Charter School of Education and Human Sciences. In addition, the Normandy Complex – formerly a dairy – was converted into a first-class conference center. Other accomplishments included the completion of a new strategic plan, which provided a road map for the first decade of Berry's second century, and the achievement of record-setting fund-raising levels.
After leaving Berry, Colley served as President of Lees-McRae College. A graduate of Randolph-Macon College, Colley earned his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the University of Chicago, completed the Harvard Institute for Educational Management and has an honorary doctorate from Randolph-Macon College. Colley served as provost and dean of the faculty of Hampden-Sydney College from 1988 to 1998 and taught at Vanderbilt University for 20 years.
The Saturday ceremony will also be streamed live at berry.edu/webcast for those who cannot attend.
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Written by Public Relations
