MURFREESBORO
— A special pair of MTSU alumni will be on hand Saturday, Dec. 14, to
celebrate with an estimated 1,977 students receiving their degrees in two fall
2013 commencement ceremonies inside Murphy Center.
Mary Esther Reed, the first female mayor of Smyrna,
Tenn., and holder of three education degrees from MTSU, is the guest speaker
for the university’s 9 a.m. commencement ceremony Dec. 14.
State Sen. Bill Ketron of Murfreesboro, a 1976 MTSU
graduate and recipient of one of the university’s 1991 Distinguished Alumni
Awards, will speak at the 2 p.m. ceremony.
Students
from the College of Graduate Studies, Basic and Applied Sciences, Jennings A.
Jones College of Business and the College of Education will receive their
degrees in the morning ceremony. That afternoon, students in the College of
Behavioral and Health Sciences, College of Liberal Arts, College of Mass
Communication and the University College will receive their degrees.
MTSU’s
commencement ceremonies are always free and open to the public. Friends,
families and supporters who can’t attend in person can watch each event live
online via streaming video on Dec. 14. The live commencement coverage will
begin about 15 minutes before each ceremony starts; visit http://ow.ly/rwxOz for a link to the video feed and more details.
MTSU’s
Registrar’s Office reported this week that 1,655 of the 1,977
students set to graduate Dec. 14 are undergraduates and 322 are graduate
students, including 298 master’s candidates, 14 education-specialist recipients
and six doctoral candidates. Four graduate students also will receive graduate certificates.
Reed, who has served on the Smyrna Town Council
since 2003, earned her Bachelor of Science in early childhood education from
MTSU in 1992, then received a master’s degree in education administration and
supervision in 1994 and an education specialist’s degree in 1996.
She started her teaching career in 1992 as a
classroom teacher, serving students at John Colemon Elementary and Smyrna Primary
schools. For the past 11 years, she has owned and operated the Learning Circle,
a Murfreesboro retail educational supply store serving teachers and parents in
the Middle Tennessee area.
Reed has been active in Smyrna and Rutherford County
organizations as well as at her alma mater. She has served as president of
MTSU’s National Alumni Association and Blue Raider Athletic Association and the
Boys and Girls Club of Rutherford County, and she’s worked on numerous local
boards, including StoneCrest Medical Center, the MTSU Foundation, the Linebaugh
Library Foundation and the United Way of Rutherford and Cannon Counties.
Ketron, who represents the 13th District in the
Tennessee General Assembly, is the Senate Republican caucus chair and serves on
that body’s State and Local Government Committee, Finance, Ways and Means Committee
and the Select Committee on Ethics.
The Murfreesboro insurance company owner studied
political science and history at MTSU and has maintained close ties to his alma
mater — he cofounded and was the first president of the Blue Raider Athletic
Association. His service also includes past presidencies of the National Exchange
Club, the Foundation for the Prevention of Child Abuse and the Rutherford
County Volunteer Fire Department.
Among Ketron’s awards and honors are his selection as Advocate of the
Year by the American Heart Association and recognition as a leading Tennessee
legislator by the Tennessee Cable Communications Association, the South Central
Development District, the Greater Nashville Regional Council and the Tennessee
Fire Chiefs Association.
According
to the MTSU Graduation Committee, all graduating students are required to stay
for their entire commencement ceremony. Each ceremony should last about two
hours.
Graduation
information — including maps and driving directions to Murphy Center,
cap-and-gown information, official photographs and contacts for the Registrar’s
Office — is available anytime at http://www.mtsunews.com/graduation-info.
You also
can view a PDF of the complete 40-page Dec. 14 commencement program at http://ow.ly/rwy2d.
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