Three graduation ceremonies were held at the Farris Center on the University of Central Arkansas campus Saturday to not only congratulate UCA students on their accomplishments, but encourage them to continue their success.
University of Central Arkansas President Lu Hardin gave the challenge to the graduates during the ceremony and said the most important thing he can say is that he is proud of all 1,129 of them.
"Today is the culmination of your hard work for many years," Hardin said during the 5 p.m. ceremony. "Some graduates have been working more than 40 hours a week, carrying 15, 18, even 19 hours in their course loads while earning their degrees."
Hardin also said the hard work the UCA graduates did to make it to Saturday's graduation can never be taken away from them.
"When you are 85 years old, you will still have that degree," Hardin said. "It is something you worked hard for you and something you should be very proud of and for that I congratulate you all on a job well done."
Even though they just finished several years of college, Hardin challenged all the graduates present Saturday to continue learning.
"The great success stories of the University of Central Arkansas are the students who went on to continue their education in their field of study and you don't have to take a class to do that," Hardin said. "Just keep learning, keep studying in whatever you choose to do."
Hardin also encouraged the group to seek the one thing they passionate about and follow through with it, even if it means facing criticism. He told them if they choose a job they are passionate about, everything else will fall into place.
"Today after you walk across that stage you will assume more responsibilities than you did the day before," Hardin told the graduates. "After today you will have the opportunity to make a difference in the world and for that we are all very proud."
Shannon Edwards, who received a bachelor's degree in business administration Saturday, said it felt great to finally be able to graduate college. She added she was looking forward to pursuing the many ideas she has for her career.
"It's been a long four years, but I'm so glad and so excited to see it finally pay off," Edwards said.
Justin Young and Dustin Smith, who both received bachelor's degrees in management, said Saturday's experience was a surreal one.
"I'm happy about graduating but I'll miss all my college friends and the experiences we've had here," Smith said. "Those four years went by pretty fast."
Young said the next step in his life will be to bravely enter the real world and start looking for a job in business.
UCA graduate Chelsea Huckabay, who received her bachelor's degree in writing Saturday, said the commencement ceremony was not at all a sad occasion for her.
"I'm happy to be here and I'm really just glad to be getting out," Huckabay said. "I had a lot of fun and I will miss all of my friends and my roommates but I'm glad this day is finally here."
According to Huckabay, both her freshman and sophomore years at UCA were a breeze, her junior year took forever and her senior year unfortunately flew by.
"Now that I'm a graduate, if I could do whatever I wanted to do, I would write a novel and become famous, but we'll just have to see how that goes," Huckabay said.
(Staff writer Jessica Bauer can be reached by e-mail at jessica.bauer@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1236. To comment on this and other stories in the Log Cabin, log on to www.thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)
