(WARRENSBURG, Mo.) – Nearly 1,000 University of Central Missouri students are eligible to participate in fall commencement exercises this weekend in the Multipurpose Building.

Three different ceremonies, which are open to the public, are planned for Friday and Saturday.

Graduate commencement is at 7 p.m. Friday, and the undergraduate commencement will be divided into two ceremonies on Saturday morning and afternoon.
New graduates of the Adrian and Margaret Harmon College of Business and Professional Studies and the College of Education will be honored at 10 a.m. Degrees will be conferred upon graduates of the College of Health, Science, and Technology and College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at 2 p.m.

UCM President Charles Ambrose will be the keynote speaker during Saturday graduation exercises. Two graduate students, Jessica Lynn DiGiovanni, candidate for an Education Specialist degree in school administration/school principalship, and Darren Morrison Doherty, candidate for a Master of Science in criminal justice, are the graduate ceremony speakers.

Two special awards are planned on Saturday. The new Mike Carter Award for Exceptional Service to the University, Community and Military will be presented to Mauricio Alejandro Arias, who is a second-year student majoring in criminal justice and serving in the 1-135^th Aviation Army National Guard Reserve at Whiteman Air Force Base.

The award is named for Mike Carter, professor emeritus of health education. It was established in 2012 to annually recognize a UCM student’s efforts in support of initiatives that help develop relationship between the university, the community and the United States military.

Arias will be recognized during the morning and afternoon ceremonies. More information about the award and Arias is available online at ucmo.edu/news/carter.arias.cfm.

The UCM Alumni Association will honor Tiffany Lindley, a 2003 graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in commercial art and graphic design, during the 2 p.m. ceremony. She will receive the Outstanding Recent Alumni Award. A former Warrensburg resident, Lindley is the senior designer for Disney Publishing Worldwide. Read more about her achievements at ucmo.edu/news/lindley.cfm.

Other special commencement activities include the graduate reception from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Friday in the Elliott Union. On Saturday, there will be a joint reception from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Sandra Temple Elliott Ballroom of the Elliott Union for graduates and guests of the Department of Nursing and the Honors College.

Also on Saturday, the nursing department’s pinning ceremony is at 11 a.m. in Hendricks Hall and the U.S. Army ROTC Commissioning ceremonies begin at 4:30 p.m. in the Alumni Chapel followed by a reception in Elliott Union 237A/B.

The graduation ceremonies will be streamed live with help from the Office of Technology and the Department of Communication and Sociology’s student-run UCM Media Network. Visit the web at ucmo.edu/registrar/graduation/stream/webstream.cfm.

For the first time at a commencement ceremony, UCM Athletics and staff at KMOS-TV will be able to use new video boards to incorporate graphics and scenes from ceremonies taking place in the Multipurpose Building.