MURFREESBORO,
Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University’s 1,737 newest graduates have a single step to follow in the recipe
famed chef and entrepreneur Maneet
Chauhan offered for their success Saturday, Dec. 16: “Stand apart.”
Speaking
during the university’s fall 2017
commencement ceremonies, Chauhan, a featured judge on the hit Food Network
show “Chopped,” told the graduates that each has the ingredients to create a
career and a life that makes a difference.
“The one
thing people ask me all the time is ‘What is the perfect recipe for success?’
And you know what my answer is? ‘I wish I knew,'” said Chauhan, chef and owner
of Chauhan Ale and Masala House in Nashville and founder of the Tansuo and
Mockingbird restaurants in Nashville’s Gulch neighborhood via the Morph
Hospitality Group.
"Because
if I knew the perfect recipe for success, I would be cooking up a storm,
bottling those recipes, selling it and madng boatloads of money, right? If life
was only that simple. What there is a recipe for is vision, attitude and
dedication. And that’s something all of you have. … You all are amazingly
fortunate to receive an amazing education at MTSU.
“Today,
you all walk into the world equipped with the best knowledge. Now, what you do
with it is completely up to you. How you convert this education into success is
what life is all about. How you stand apart is the trick,” the Franklin,
Tennessee, resident continued. “May you all be shining stars in your field.”
Brent
Carpenetti, 29, has worked hard to stand apart, serving his
country as a U.S. Marine, earning a bachelor’s degree, working full-time in
actuarial science at BlueCross BlueShield in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and, as an
MTSU intern, owning a small tutoring business.
He earned his Master of Science in Professional
Science in actuarial science Saturday, the first MTSU graduate to achieve
Associate of the Society of Actuaries status before graduating from the
program. Actuarial science uses mathematical and statistical methods to assess
risk in insurance, finance and other industries.
“It signifies a key attribute I hold dear:
Finish what you start,” Carpenetti said of his new accomplishment.
“The actuarial profession places little value
on any particular degree. Rather, examinations within the credentialing bodies
and job performance dictate standing. … I place a high value on follow-through.
Moreover, I felt a sense of duty to represent my professors and their efforts
well by contributing to the overall graduation and academic statistics of the
MTSU actuarial program.”
Human performance isn’t only new MTSU doctoral
graduate Eric Scudamore’s major;
it’s his mantra. He jump-started his career in August by accepting an
instructor’s position at Arkansas State University — the same institution
that’s playing MTSU’s Blue Raiders in the Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama,
Saturday night.
The Huntsville, Alabama, native, who’s been
teaching, advising undergrads and conducting research at ASU while finishing
his dissertation, returned to MTSU Saturday morning to receive his diploma.
He’ll go back to Arkansas State as an assistant professor of exercise science
with a Ph.D.
He said MTSU offered the perfect blend of
research and teaching experience needed to reach his career goals, but that
wasn’t the only reason he chose the Murfreesboro university.
“The day I submitted my application to MTSU, I
noticed the kindness and helpfulness of the faculty, staff and administration,”
said Scudamore. “I visited MTSU shortly afterward to meet the faculty and tour
the campus and saw that their knowledge and experience was only surpassed by
their commitment to the students.”
Five MTSU student-athletes stood apart as well
this graduation weekend, receiving their degrees on Friday, Dec. 15, in a brief
special ceremony in a Montgomery hotel so they could play football Saturday
evening in the Camellia Bowl.
MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee presented Jim
Cardwell, Jamal Jones, Mike Minter Jr. and Charvarius Ward with undergraduate degrees in finance and liberal
studies and Brent Stockstill with a
leisure, sport and tourism master’s degree during the event.
Students
from the College of Graduate Studies,
College of Basic and Applied Sciences, the Jones College of Business and the College of Education received their degrees in the Saturday morning
ceremony. The afternoon ceremony featured graduates in the College of Behavioral and Health Sciences, College of Liberal Arts,
College of Media and Entertainment, and the University College.
The
MTSU Registrar’s Office reported that of the 1,737 students graduating Saturday,
1,514 are undergraduates and 223 are graduate students, including 196 master’s
candidates, 10 education-specialist recipients and 17 doctoral candidates.
Three graduate students also received graduate certificates.
An
official program listing all the graduates is available at http://ow.ly/dfWk30bgTyW. Photo albums from the day’s celebrations
are available at http://www.facebook.com/mtsublueraiders.
McPhee
encouraged all the new graduates to “bask in the glory that surrounds this day”
but reminded them that it’s also a starting point for their next adventures.
"You
may feel that this long journey is over,” McPhee said. “We feel that it is just
a comma, not a period, in your story. It is just the beginning of even greater
things to come."
Alumnus
Darrell Freeman, founder of Zycron
Inc. and vice chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees, also urged his
new fellow alumni to “take the hope, the greatness and the civility that is
inside you to make a positive impact on the world.”
MTSU graduation
information — including links to maps and driving directions to Murphy Center,
cap-and-gown information, official photographs and contacts for the Registrar’s
Office — is available year-round at http://www.mtsunews.com/graduation-info.
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