The Universities at Shady Grove recognized 714 fall 2013 and spring 2014 bachelor’s degree candidates from its nine partner universities at the thirteenth annual USG Graduation Celebration on Thursday, May 8. Congressman John Delaney delivered the keynote address to a capacity crowd of more than 1,000 students, family, friends, and distinguished guests.
This year’s class includes a record number of graduates from programs at USG and shows steady growth since the first graduating class of 36 students in 2002. In total, more than 5,400 students have now received bachelor’s degrees from programs offered at USG since the campus began offering full-time, daytime programs in the fall of 2000.
“Every year, I am in awe of the students that graduate from our partner universities and go on to make extraordinary contributions in their fields of study,” said Dr. Stewart Edelstein, USG Executive Director and Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the University System of Maryland. “We are so proud of the students’ accomplishments and of the unique, collegial, and diverse education community that they have helped to create.”
Joanna Linn, a graduation candidate of Towson’s Elementary and Special Education program at USG, served as the student speaker for the event. Carlos Moya, a graduation candidate of UMBC’s Political Science program at USG introduced Congressman Delaney. Antoine Battle, a graduation candidate of UMCP’s Robert H. Smith School of Business’ International Business program at USG presented the class gift and Cindy Rivas a graduation candidate of UMES’ Hotel and Restaurant Management program at USG introduced the Graduation Celebration video. Sandrine Mbonwo, a graduation candidate of UMCP’s Robert H. Smith School of Business’ Accounting program at USG performed the National Anthem to open the evening’s celebration.