University of Georgia: News Service

Commencement Addresses

Deep Shah's spring 2008 Commencement address
The student speaker for the spring 2008 undergraduate ceremony was Deep Shah, a recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship. Shah, who graduated with degrees in biology and international affairs, is a UGA Foundation Fellow and last year received the Harry Truman Scholarship.

Kevin Scott's fall 2007 Commencement address
The student speaker for the Fall 2007 undergraduate Commencement ceremony was Kevin Scott of Kennesaw, Ga. Scott is executive director of UGA HERO, which raises money and conducts programs to help children with HIV/AIDS. With some 1,500 student members, HERO is the largest student philanthropic organization at UGA and was chosen 2007 Student Organization of the Year.

Erroll Davis' spring 2007 Commencement address
Erroll B. Davis Jr., chancellor of the University System of Georgia, spoke at UGA’s undergraduate spring Commencement May 12, 2007. Davis, who became chancellor in February, 2006, oversees Georgia’s 35 public colleges and universities that collectively have 253,500 students, 35,000 faculty and staff and a $5 billion annual budget. The University of Georgia is the oldest and largest institution in the system.

Early's spring 2007 graduate Commencement address
Mary Frances Early, the first African American to receive a degree from UGA, spoke at UGA’s graduate spring Commencement May 12, 2007. Early graduated in 1962 with a master’s degree in music education and had a lengthy career as a music teacher and administrator in Atlanta public schools and colleges. She was the first African-American president of the Georgia Music Educators Association and received the group’s Distinguished Educator Award. UGA’s College of Education has created an endowed professorship named for her and the university holds an annual lecture in her honor.

John Huey's Commencement address 2006
John Huey Jr., editor-in-chief of Time Inc. Huey, who graduated from UGA in 1970 with a degree in English literature, oversees the editorial content of some 155 magazines published by Time, Inc., including Time, Sports Illustrated, People and Fortune was the commencement speaker for spring 2006. He is a former reporter and editor for the Wall Street Journal and former managing editor of Fortune.

L. Travis Canova 's Commencement address 2005
L. Travis Canova of Rome was the student speaker for the spring 2005 Commencement. Canova, who received a bachelor's degree in business administration, was chosen by fellow students to represent his graduating class in the commencement exercises. A participant in the Leonard Leadership Scholars Program in UGA's Terry College of Business, Canova was in the Honors Program and was president of Blue Key honor society and a member of the Arch Society, Sphinx and Leadership UGA. Canova urged graduates to follow their dreams, reminding them that "life is too short to be little."

Garrett Gravesen's Commencement address 2003
Garrett Gravesen delivered the Commencement speech to the Graduating Class of 2003 encouraging everyone to be a HERO.

Corey Sterns's commencement address 2000
Corey Stern, a history major from Mt. Sinai, N.Y., who served as vice president of the Student Government Association, was the student speaker for the 2000 spring commencement.