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CONTACT: CAMERON JUDD
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e-mail: cjudd@tusculum.edu
Tusculum College confers degrees in Saturday ceremonies
GREENEVILLE -- Tusculum College conferred degrees on about 250 graduates in commencement ceremonies at the College on Saturday.
Two members of the Class of 2001, Carmen Brown of Lithonia, Ga., and George W. Darby Jr., retired from the United States Air Force after a 30-year career, gave the commencement addresses.
Brown, speaking on behalf of students in Tusculum’s Residential College, focused her comments on the theme of gratitude from graduates to the parents and loved ones who have supported them. Her speech was sometimes emotional, sometimes gently humorous as she presented the human side of college life.
“To our parents: thank you for the money ... the food ... for understanding when we made a C in that easy course ... and for the years of love. Today we share our spotlight with you,” she said.
To her fellow graduates, Brown said, “I love you and I appreciate you. May God continue to bless you and may all your dreams come true.”
Later in the ceremony, Brown joined her members of the Class of 2001 and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in athletic training before a crowd that filled Tusculum’s Alpine Arena nearly to capacity.
Darby, who lives in Louisville, Tenn., and received his Bachelor of Science in Organizational Management degree through Tusculum’s Graduate and Professional Studies program, gave a vigorous motivational speech punctuated more than once with the loud declaration, “Today is a great day to be alive and a graduate of Tusculum College!”
Darby’s comments focused on the diverse group that makes up the Professional Studies student body, a group consisting entirely of adults, most of whom are working professionals.
He noted wryly, “It is perhaps appropriate that the oldest institution of higher learning in the State of Tennessee also has some of the oldest graduates.”
He described at length the challenges and intensity of the Professional Studies program, but declared the effort more than worth it. “We will take much more from Tusculum College than we leave behind,” he said.
In his commencement sermon, the Rev. Dr. Stephen Weisz, campus chaplain and associate professor of religious studies at Tusculum College, challenged the graduates to be willing to go in life where God leads them, not shirking back from unfamiliar or frightening challenges.
To be true servants of God, he said, “we cannot go just where we want to go, but where God tells us to go.”
After the conferring of degrees, Tusculum President Dr. Dolphus Henry charged the graduates to follow the path laid out by earlier graduates who have gone on to contribute to their communities and world in a variety of ways. He encouraged them to look back fondly on their days at Tusculum, just as the college looks fondly upon them as part of its ever-growing family.
Tusculum College is the oldest institution of higher learning in Tennessee, and the 28th oldest college in the nation. It is the oldest coeducational institution of higher learning affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
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