LWC to Award 218 degrees at College's 107th commencement
COLUMBIA, KY - Lindsey Wilson College will award 218 degrees May 12 at its 107th commencement ceremony. The liberal arts college's 2018 spring commencement ceremony will be at 10 a.m. CT Saturday, May 12, in Biggers Sports Center, 360 Spickard Drive, Columbia, Ky.
A former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, community leader and LWC alumnus, Michael Futrell ’07, will deliver the spring commencement address.
Futrell will also receive an honorary doctorate from the college.
Combined with the 340 degrees the college awarded last winter, Lindsey Wilson will award a total of 558 undergraduate and graduate degrees this school year. To put this year's spring commencement in perspective, LWC awarded 312 degrees in 2003-04, the last year the college held only one commencement ceremony.
Lindsey Wilson College alumnus, Honorable Michael Futrell made history in 2014. At the age of 31, Futrell became the youngest African American to be elected a state delegate representing the 2nd House District in the Virginia General Assembly and the first African American to represent Stafford County, Va., in its 350 year existence.
Futrell is an activist for education, military and veteran families, and healthcare reform. While in the House of Delegates, Futrell sponsored numerous bills and campaigns including “Ban the Box”, a movement in Virginia to ban the felony checkbox on employment applications which helped to expand the job applicant pool.
Committed to empowering underprivileged and at-risk youth, Futrell and his wife, Dr. Bernadine Futrell, established the youth-focused not for profit organization, Make the Future. Make the Future’s mission is to deliberately connect youth with adults who will mentor, guide and direct them to their full potential. Since its start, Make the Future, has worked to establish Prince William County as a Let’s Move designated community. Make the Future has been honored by the Obama White House and the Prince William County Minority Business Network for its outstanding work in the community.
“The Futrell’s have a great passion for the transformational power of education and walk the talk,” said LWC President William T. Luckey Jr. “
Other Commencement Events: The annual LWC senior banquet will be held at 5 p.m. CT Friday, May 11, in Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center, 430 Helen Flatt Drive. It will be followed by the baccalaureate service, which will be at 7 p.m. CT in Biggers Sports Center.
Following the May 12 commencement ceremony, the Lindsey Wilson National Alumni Association will hold a reception for graduates and guests in Cranmer Dining & Conference Center.
"Commencement is always the highlight of the school year," said Lindsey Wilson President William T. Luckey Jr., who has been the college's eighth president since July 1, 1998. "It's a wonderful day for our students, their family members and their friends.
To accommodate the large crowd expected for spring commencement, the ceremony will be shown on closed-circuit television in the Norma & Glen Hodge Center for Discipleship, 402 Helen Flatt Drive. The ceremony can also be watched via lindsey.edu on the Lindsey Wilson Stretch Internet channel: http://bit.ly/lwcchannel.