Emily Christine Finch graduates from NEMCC

2015 Jun 15

Northeast Mississippi Community College watched as one of its largest graduating classes walked across the stage in Bonner Arnold Coliseum during a two-night commencement exercise on Thursday, May 14 and Friday, May 15.

In front of a near capacity crowd, Northeast honored candidates for degrees and certifications from the college's Division of Health Sciences on Thursday, May 14 while the college concluded its graduation ceremonies on Friday, May 15 as Northeast honored students receiving degrees and certificates from the divisions of Business and Engineering Technology; Fine Arts; Humanities and Languages; Mathematics and Sciences and Social, Behavioral and Applied Sciences.

Between the two nights, Northeast awarded approximately 650 degrees to December 2014 and May 2015 graduating students.

Included in those six-hundred-and-fifty (650) graduates was: Emily Christine Finch of Saltillo, MS (38866).

Rachel Burns, the 2015 Most Outstanding student of the college's Division of Health Sciences, delivered the student response at Thursday night's ceremony.

Northeast's 2014-15 Student Government Association president Hunter W. Thompson of Booneville followed with the student response on Friday night.

In addition to Burns and Thompson's remarks, a bevy of Northeast dignitaries addressed the capacity crowd.

Members of the college's Board of Trustees and Cabinet, as well as several of the college's 10 retiring faculty/staff members took part in the program.

Retiring Northeast president Dr. Johnny L. Allen, Ed.D., gave his remarks to the final graduating class under his watch and watched his final graduation as president on Friday, May 15.

Molly Thorn of Belmont, who performed the National Anthem for both commencement exercises in 2014, returned with Gracie Wilbanks of Corinth to sing for both ceremonies this year.

Northeast Board of Trustees chairman T. Jack Ramsey of Iuka conveyed an official welcome to those in attendance and Northeast executive vice president Ricky Ford recognized the 2015 class.

Retiring faculty members Martha Johnson and J. Ray Cozort served as Grand Marshals for the commencement exercises. Johnson, a retiring health science instructor with 22 years served as the Grand Marshal for the ceremony on Thursday night while Cozort, a retiring mathematics and science instructor who has been at Northeast for 41 years led Friday's exercises as Grand Marshal.

Northeast dean of instruction Rilla C. Jones of Corinth will present the 2015 graduating class while Allen will confer the diplomas and certificates of the graduates on Friday evening.