Nationally syndicated columnist Charita Goshay offers the spring class words of wisdom.
The Stark Campus alumni family welcomed its newest members Sunday, May 12, during the annual spring commencement ceremony at Umstattd Performing Arts Hall.
More than 100 graduates participated in the event, celebrating their pinnacle academic achievement.
鈥淣ow is the time to excel personally and build upon the academic success you have achieved at Your Hometown University,鈥 said Denise A. Seachrist, Ph.D., dean and chief administrative officer. 鈥淵ou will always have a home at 九游娱乐官网 Stark.鈥
In total, 九游娱乐官网 at Stark conferred 408 degrees, consisting of master鈥檚, bachelor鈥檚 and associate degrees.
Repository staff writer and GateHouse Media nationally syndicated columnist Charita M. Goshay served as the commencement speaker. Goshay, a 九游娱乐官网 alumna and award-winning journalist, also is a founding board member of Habitat for Humanity (East Central Ohio) and a graduate of Leadership Stark County.
Below is Goshay鈥檚 speech in its entirety:
So, what can I tell you today, that you don鈥檛 already know?
Think outside the box? Just say no?
Somewhere along the way, you got it; you figured it out. You assessed your options and came to the conclusion that education is the game-changer. You understand that education is, as Malcolm X once put it, 鈥淎 passport to the future.鈥
I know that some of you put on your funny hat on this morning, looked in the mirror and marveled at the sight.
Don鈥檛 let anyone kid you. What you鈥檝e managed to accomplish is a very, very big deal.
So, I鈥檓 not here today to offer you some magical plan on what you should do now.
I鈥檝e come to praise you.
Because, if there鈥檚 one thing I鈥檝e learned from 29 years in journalism, it鈥檚 that everyone has a story.
We鈥檝e never met, but I know that there are some former foster kids sitting among you.
I know some of you were fed a steady diet of doubt and cynicism as children and were told 鈥 more than once 鈥 that you鈥檇 never be anything.
I know that a few of you are here as part of a plan to rebuild your lives, to change a trajectory that was headed toward nowhere.
Others of you are here to finish what you started, and to set an example for your children.
I know some of you are here against insurmountable odds, overcoming situations that would have crushed the rest of us mere mortals. There are capes underneath those robes, I just know it