Those earning undergraduate degrees represented 39 fields of study, and graduate degrees were awarded in 21 fields of study.
Tennessee Tech is a genuine example of what s good and truly special about a university campus, President Phil Oldham told graduates. Social media s power fuels how we all communicate, but it cannot create the sense of community routinely enjoyed on this campus. You are a part of something larger than yourself a community of scholars, both faculty and students, linked by a common purpose to create and learn and share.
There s one thing that gives me more excitement than being able to return to my office on Monday it is knowing that on Monday you all will be Tech alumni.
In the graduating class were students with birth years ranging from 1950 to 1996. The group was made up of students with initial terms of entrance ranging from summer 1986 to spring 2016.
Melissa Geist, a professor in the Whitson-Hester School of Nursing and newly appointed faculty member of the inaugural Tennessee Tech Board of Trustees, gave her remarks to the graduates, encouraging them to keep moving forward.
I tell you this because, as I've heard President Oldham and others say, those graduating now will completely change their career path many times and that many of you will end up working in fields not remotely related to the majors printed on your transcripts, Geist said. I'm here to tell you that's ok.
Describing her own experiences career path that took her from a greeter at a hotel to pediatric nurse practitioner in an emergency room to a doctoral fellow in biochemical engineering to a college dean and professor, Geist encouraged graduates not to fear the next move, as long as it is forward.
Three things Geist encouraged graduates to remember on their journey forward: don t quit when people are tough on you, always live within your means and get out of your comfort zone.
As my dad used to say, you ve got the tiger by the tail. The world is truly yours, Geist said. Go get it!
Ceremonies were held at 9:30 a.m. for graduates from the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering, College of Emerging and Integrative Studies and College of Nursing, and at 2 p.m. for graduates from the College of Agriculture and Human Ecology, College of Business and College of Education & Human Sciences in the Hooper Eblen Center.