Shaw University
Published: Sun, May. 14, 2006 12:00AM
Modified Sun, May. 14, 2006 02:34AM
E-Mail
Print
tool name
closeThe ceremony: 11 a.m. Saturday at Dorton Arena in Raleigh
Number of graduates: 470
Main speaker: Albert "Al" Roker
FOCUS ON A GRAD
MonaLisa Covington, became a minister in February 1999, when she felt a pressing need for more education.
"A minister should at least try to know more than the congregation," she said.
In September of that same year, Covington began work on her Master of Divinity degree at Shaw. She had earned her bachelor's degree in religion and philosophy from Shaw years ago.
Covington, 50, is the chaplin for Urban Ministries in Greensboro and also tutors children for end-of-grade and other exams. To complete the five-year master's program in three years, she commuted from Greensboro, putting as many as 450 miles on her car per week.
Related Content
More Local & State
What he said: Hard work is the key to a successful life and better world. Roker, who supports traditional affirmative action programs, encouraged students to reclaim the term "affirmative action." Roker said it should refer not just to diversity programs and recruiting efforts, but also to the life-affirming, community-enriching choices that graduates make in their lives every day.
Memorable quotes: "Just hanging out doesn't put food in your mouth," Roker said. "And as you know, until I had the gastric bypass, I liked to put food in my mouth. So I knew I had to work hard."
"We love you," Roker said to the graduates on behalf of their parents. "We've nurtured you. The gravy train is over, now get out of the house."
Notable graduates: Jerry Dudley, 24, from Staten Island, N.Y., the only student to graduate Saturday with a physics degree. After Dudley shook hands with Shaw President Clarence Newsome and walked off the stage, he raised his arms, pumped his fists and did a one-legged James Brown-style split, all without his hands ever touching the ground. "That's how I'm feeling," he said as he hit his chest and made eye contact with family members in the audience.
Nastassia Boucicault, 22, a mass communications major from New York, was the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association's basketball player of the year.
Boucicault tried out for a few WNBA teams this year and hopes to play for the league in the future. This summer, she will head overseas and play for a German women's team. On Saturday, 10 family members and friends came from as far as New York and Florida to see her graduate.
Number of mortarboards: 545 (graduates and faculty)
Number of decorated mortarboards: Just one. The graduate kept it simple with numbers pasted on the hat's flat, diamond-shaped top -- "4.0"
Dress hats in audience: 22 (17 women, five men) "People don't know me without a hat," said Josephine F. Scott from Norfolk, Va. Scott is the mother of Shaw University's Dean Quincy Scott and attends graduation most years.
Graduates with visible gray hair: 13
Get it all with convenient home delivery of The News & Observer.
The News & Observer is pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting.
Since The News & Observer does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our website. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not The News and Observer.
If you find a comment offensive, clicking on the exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators, we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.
