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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 12, 2007

For More Information:
Annette Barnette
Public Relations & Marketing Director
����ֱ�� State College
(304)462-4115

����ֱ�� State College now has more than two-hundred new alumni. The 133rd GSC commencement took place at 10:00 on Saturday morning May 12, 2007 in the physical education building gymnasium. The commencement was the first for ����ֱ�� State College’s newest President, Dr. Peter Barr, who officially started his job July 1, 2006. Barr said, “Your ����ֱ�� State College education will provide you with a standard of excellence as you make your community a better place by having lived there.”

Students completing their requirements for their Associate and Bachelor degrees in August 2006, December 2006, and May 2007 officially became graduates during the ceremony. Their degrees were earned in a variety of academic areas including business, teacher education, and natural resource management. “You have mastered the challenges of academic excellence, extracurricular achievement, and community service. You have done this while balancing the multiple responsibilities of career, family, and civic involvement with vigorous academic demands. I congratulate each of you for your determination and accomplishments,” said Barr.

The GSC Class of 2007 members come from several counties throughout West Virginia as well as other states including Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, Ohio, Maryland, California, Kentucky, and Missouri and even other countries including Japan and Canada.

Graduate Cornnel Norman of Compton, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, attended GSC on a football scholarship. He finished his Bachelor of Arts degree in English requirements in December and, after going home to take a job as a photographer, he returned to West Virginia to reunite with classmates and participate in the ceremony. Norman said, "I really enjoyed my time at ����ֱ�� State College. I attended school here on a football scholarship and loved everything about it including the fresh mountain air, which we don't have back in LA."

Twenty-two members of GSC’s Class of 1957 traveled from throughout West Virginia and other states including Ohio, Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania to also participate in the ceremony. They joined current graduates by walking across the commencement platform and continuing the tradition of inviting fifty-year graduates back for commencement.

The ceremony’s keynote address was given be West Virginia Homeland Security Advisor and West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary, James Westbrooke Spears, of Elkins. Spears received a Presidential Citation along with West Virginia House of Delegates member Brent Boggs of Braxton County, who graduated from GSC in 1976. Gilmer County businessman, Ike Morris, received an honorary ����ֱ�� State College degree from Dr. Barr. The GSC President also handed out the Faculty Award of Excellence to Janet Bailey, a Classified Employee of the Year Award to Tim Marks, and the GSC Student Leadership Award to Chemistry and Education Major, Brenton Drake of Burnsville.