UL Grads savor their special day + photo gallery 12/16/12

UL Grads savor their special day � photo gallery 12/16/12

UL football player Blaine Gauthier smiles at people in the audience as he walks to his seat during the 2012 UL Fall Commencement Exercises General Assembly Saturday at the Cajundome in Lafayette. By Leslie Westbrook December 15, 2012.

Athletic Network Footnote: Click here for UL Commencement General Assembly Photo Gallery.

Tina Marie Macias, The Advertiser, December 16, 2012

University of Louisiana at Lafayette graduates turned the Cajundome into a sea of vermilion red robes on Saturday during commencement ceremonies for 1,335 students. Their degrees and achievements were celebrated during a general assembly in which speakers encouraged them to help change the world.

"I encourage you to take that sense of hope, optimism, hard work and tenacity that brought you to this day and carry it with you for the rest of your life in whatever you choose to do," UL President Joe Savoie said. "Approach the upcoming decisions in your life with a willingness to follow your passions, a desire to make a difference in the world and a commitment to do what you can to help others."

Savoie reminded the graduates that they are something special, which was confirmed by their new regalia. The class of Fall 2012 was the first to wear the commemorative vermilion red robes and the first to purchase university rings.Savoie spoke during the university’s general assembly that honors all graduates, but their degrees were confirmed during individual college ceremonies where friends and families cheered, hooted and hollered when individual graduates’ names were called.

"There are a lot of people who helped you to get to this point, people who are celebrating your accomplishments," Savoie said. "Many of these people over the years have sacrificed for you. They may have put off doing something important for themselves to get you to this day. Be sure to thank them and to return the favor by helping someone else realize their dreams. Hold on to the hope that brought you here today."The keynote speaker during the general assembly was Kohl Crecelius, the co-founder Krochet Kids International, a nonprofit that taught Ugandan women to become economically independent by learning to crochet and selling their products.He reiterated the need to appreciate all the people who helped graduates complete their degrees.

"You may have not realized it, but over the last 16 years of their education, people have been pouring into you and investing in you so you can be equipped and go and do something so that you can go and changed the world," Crecelius said. "There are people around the globe that would give everything that they have to be in your position and have a college education. I don’t say that to make you feel guilty, but to make you realize how special this is."

Along with Crecelius and Savoie’s speeches, 4.0 graduates, Ph.D. candidates and the overall winner of the UL Alumni Association’s Outstanding Graduates also was announced during the general assembly. Madeline Richard, a finance major in the B.I. Moody III College of Business Administration, beat out seven other graduates representing their respective colleges.

Richard earned a 3.948 grade-point average and completed her degree in three and a half years, including a summer spent in Italy through the study abroad program. Richard has been on the President’s List and is a member of UL’s Honors Program and of Alpha Lambda Delta, Sigma Alpha Lambda and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies.

Richard is the daughter of Gerard and Suzanne Richard of Kaplan. She plans to pursue a graduate degree in economics and obtain a job involving budgetary analysis. She wants to live in the Lafayette area and remain active in UL events.She’s received the Hardee Memorial Endowed Scholarship, UL Alumni Scholarship, UL Valedictorian Scholarship, UL Rally Scholarship, UL Centennial Scholarship, Gulf South Pipeline Scholarship and a TOPS Performance Award.

Richard has been president of the Student Alumni Association, attended a National 4-H Congress, has served on UL Lafayette’s Official Ring Committee and was a peer mentor for the First Year Experience UNIV 100 course. She was a volunteer for the Maltrait Memorial Catholic School annual Spring Bazaar and for the Holy Rosary Catholic Church annual fundraiser. Richard has tutored UL and high school students, taught catechism and served as a commissioner for local and federal elections.

The other seven outstanding graduates were Hanna Ray, a music major in the College of Arts; Justin Breaux, an instrumental music education major in the College of Education; Jennifer Osten, a petroleum engineering major in the College of Engineering; Kashia Vice, a general studies major in the College of General Studies; Alyssa Ledet, a nursing major in the College of Nursing and Allied Health Professionals; Megan Waterman, a biology major in the Ray P. Authement College of Sciences; and Marka Johnson, a sociology major in the College of Liberal Arts.