The Florida A&M University (FAMU) Marching “100”s first female drum major Cori Bostic, and “Million-dollar Scholar” Emmanuel Blake Dawson will be among the more than 630 graduates at the fall 2019 commencement ceremonies.
Bostic from Lithonia, Georgia, graduates from the School of Journalism & Graphic Communication (SJGC) with a Bachelor of Science Degree in broadcast journalism. In August 2018, she made history by becoming the first female drum major of the 70-year-old band. Bostic plans to attend medical school.
Dawson graduates summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Supply Chain Management from the School of Business and Industry (SBI). He has been hired by Deloitte Consulting to work as a strategy and operation business analyst in San Francisco, California.
In 2016, as a high school senior, Dawson of Louisville, Kentucky, garnered national headlines when his academic prowess earned him more than $1 million in scholarship offers. His 4.2 high school GPA and 28 ACT score earned him full rides to three universities, as well as five-digit financial aid offers from eight other universities. His total scholarship offering of $1,002,836 earned him the title, “The Million-Dollar Scholar.”
There will be two commencement ceremonies. At 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13, the ceremony will feature 273 students from the School of Allied Health Sciences, the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, School of Architecture and Engineering Technology, SBI, School of the Environment, School of Nursing, and SJGC.
At 9 a.m. Saturday, the 360 students from the colleges of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Education, Law, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the Colleges of Science and Technology and College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities will hold their commencement ceremony. The ROTC Commissioning ceremony will take place during the Saturday ceremony.
Tallahassee native, Carla Hayden, Ph.D., the first woman and first African American to be named Librarian of Congress, will be the speaker for both ceremonies at the Lawson Multipurpose Center and Teaching Gymnasium, 1800 Wahnish Way.
Hayden was born in the FAMU Hospital. Her father Bruce Hayden, Ph.D., taught in the FAMU music department, while her mother, Colleen Dowling Hayden, was a teacher in the John G. Riley Elementary School. Hayden is the 14th Librarian of Congress.
The clear bag policy will be in effect at both commencement ceremonies. Doors open two hours before each ceremony.