WINGATE — In a week of off-and-on rain and thunderstorms, the skies cleared in time for the Academic Quad to dry out and play host to Wingate University’s graduate commencement ceremony Friday morning.
Tchernavia Montgomery, CEO of healthcare nonprofit Care Ring and the event’s guest speaker, felt the effects of the week’s patchy weather. She was frustrated to receive restoration estimates of “7 a.m.” one evening after storms knocked out power to her house.
“I thought, I don’t want to be in the dark that long,” she told the soon-to-be graduates. “But, we’ve been there before, haven’t we? It’s not new – the dark. The unknown. The uncertainty.”
In her keynote address, Montgomery shed light on some universal truths for the graduates, who, all told, were receiving 150 degrees in the health sciences, business, education and sport management. Over a third of degrees earned (59) were from the School of Pharmacy, including those by seven students – Cesilia Baltazar (MBA), Hannah Lane Derby (MPH), Brenda Rodriguez (MBA, MPH), Maggie Nobles (MPH), Kaitlin Roberts (MPH), Cole Ryan Rothrock (MBA) and Rama Shamieh (MBA) – who took advantage of Wingate’s dual-degree offering to tack on a master’s in either public health or business administration (or both).
The degree earners represent 18 states and five countries. Over today’s ceremony and tomorrow’s undergraduate commencement, 595 degrees will be awarded to students from 25 states and 21 countries.
In addition to leading an organization that provides healthcare, free of charge, to nearly 8,000 people each year, Montgomery serves on the boards of directors of the billion-dollar Medicaid managed-care organization Alliance Health and of the North Carolina Healthcare Foundation.
But despite her success, Montgomery said that, as a child of trauma who became a mother at 15, she knows “all too well about the power of being lost in the dark.” She told graduates that knowledge helped her find her way into the light.
Tchernavia Montgomery delivers the keynote address to Wingate Graduates.
Anesu Simango .Wingate Universit
“Knowledge and optimism are closely intertwined, especially during times of adversity,” Montgomery said. “Be it feeling empowered with solutions, having clarity or understanding or simply feeling a little hope, knowledge can help you find the light.
“From this day forward, I challenge you to treat darkness like an opportunity for self-reflection and discovery,” she continued. “Don’t let it consume you. Instead, control your life’s narrative, because in you is greatness. And the education you now possess and the opportunity it creates have given you the power to transform societies, to drive social and economic progress, to heal and to restore.”
Maggie Nobles is taking her pharmacy degree and newly established healing abilities to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where she has secured a slot in a one-year residency program. She is leaning toward working in critical-care pharmacy – in an emergency room or ICU – because of the challenges it presents.
“It’s the kind of field where I will never know everything,” says Nobles, who is from Aynor, S.C. “I really enjoy school, I really enjoy learning, and so being a critical-care pharmacist, I will always be learning.”
Nobles likes learning so much that she tacked on a master of public health degree, receiving both diplomas at commencement. The MPH, she says, dovetails nicely with critical-care pharmacy.
“The things I learned in my master’s I’ll be able to use in the critical-care setting without even realizing it,” she says. “A lot of, like, population evaluations, discharge planning, transitions of care – it’s all about public health. I’ve kind of found a happy medium.”
Laney McLaurin played softball for Wingate, and yesterday she earned her master of accounting degree. Her Bulldog bloodlines run deep, with her father, Boyd McLaurin, having played football at Wingate and her sister, Katie McLaurin, having also played softball for the Bulldogs.
“That definitely helped Wingate feel like home away from home,” says McLaurin, from Laurinburg. “Wingate has exceeded my expectations, and I couldn’t have wished for a better five years.”
Having originally wanted to pursue a career as a lawyer, McLaurin fell in love with accounting after taking an introductory course taught by former Wingate professor Richard Cook. She now has a job waiting for her at KPMG in Charlotte.
“The deeper I got into the classes the more I realized I really enjoyed it and that I wasn’t so bad at it,” she says. “Accounting can sound boring to a lot of people, because they typically think it’s all math, but there is so much more to it.”
Raelynn Kramer, of Havelock, receives her Master of Arts in Sport Management degree from Wingate University.
Wingate University
Suzanne Bunce plans to take her doctor of occupational therapy (OTD) degree back home to the Norfolk, Virgina, area. She says she chose Wingate’s OTD program because she wanted to help shape a newer program and because of its emphasis on serving the local community while getting hands-on training. She especially enjoyed working in the student-led free clinic.
“Not only was I able to enhance my clinical abilities,” she says, “but working with underserved populations reinforced the impact occupational therapy can have on individuals’ lives, and I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to our community in this way.”
Bunce was awarded the OTD Outstanding Fieldwork Student Award during Friday’s ceremony. Other student award winners were as follows:
The Graduate Faculty Member of the Year Award, presented annually in recognition of exemplary teaching, scholarship, service, leadership and mentoring, went to Dr. Nicole Drake, associate professor in the Department of Physician Assistant Studies.
The Excellence in Research and Scholarship Award, presented annually to an accomplished scholar in acknowledgement of the importance of discovery and dissemination of new information, was awarded to Dr. Brock Harris, professor in the School of Pharmacy.
