Paine College’s HEAL Complex welcomed hundreds of visitors, Sunday morning, mostly the families of students, as it celebrated its 143rd Commencement Convocation.
President Lester A. McCorn presided over the ceremony, ushering 35 candidates to graduation, among its guests Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson, and its keynote speaker, Sen. Raphael Warnock.
There was a strong emphasis on school pride, during the convocation exercises, with several alumni from the class of 1975, called the “Golden Age” Class as it is celebrating 50 years since its own convocation.
“Pride has become a double entendre from us, because we’re lions, right? But what pride represents for us is preeminence, respect, integrity, dignity and excellence,” said McCorn, elaborating on a theme he has underscored since his recent appointment as president, particularly during his First 100 Days Address last month. “The student leaders have really embraced this idea and, as you know, peers can influence peers more than a president can… I can put it out there, but the fact that student leaders have grabbed a hold of this idea of pride and pushed their classmates to think that way, obviously the alums have always had and so because they keep interacting with our students, they are embracing that sense of ‘Lion Pride.’”
Sen. Warnock, a close friend of McCorn’s and a fellow Morehouse alumnus, would have normally been speaking from the pulpit in Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church on Sunday. His exhortations to graduating students during his address were delivered with comparable enthusiasm.
“As an HBCU (historically Black college/university) graduate, I know the unique history of places like Paine College. I know what you represent, I know the sacrifice that it took to get you here,” Warnock said.
The senator referred to his own personal history in encouraging grads to persevere amid what he called “a difficult time in our nation.”
“I wanted to recognize that it is difficult. Many of them had to work really hard, had to push against financial and other restraints just to get this far,” he said, alluding to his own work in Washington, including his membership in the Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. “But I hope that my own story might be an example, a model, of how you keep pushing even when you don’t have the answers, and when you’re working and doing the work very often, help comes in unexpected places, and I’m trying to do that work every single day in the United States Senate.”
Skyler Andrews is a reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
