NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – Symone D. Sanders-Townsend, political strategist and former senior advisor and chief spokesperson to Vice President Kamala Harris, will headline TSU’s fall 2022 commencement on Saturday, Dec. 3. Sanders, host of the new MSNBC program Symone, will give the keynote address for nearly 600 undergraduate and graduate students in the Gentry Center Complex. The ceremony starts at 9 a.m.
Symone D. Sanders-Townsend
People attending the commencement program are encouraged to wear masks as precaution against the COVID-19, flu and RSV viruses going around. For more information on fall commencement, visit https://www.tnstate.edu/records/commencement/
Sanders has held several high-level positions with national campaigns. In 2016, Rolling Stone magazine recognized her as one of 16 Young Americans Shaping the 2016 Election. A year earlier, Fusion magazine listed her as one of 30 women under 30 who would shape the 2016 election. Sanders is the author of No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Creighton University. She is married to Shawn Townsend.
At the fall commencement, Sanders is expected to inspire graduates about the story of her humble beginning in Omaha, Nebraska, where she was born, and how she climbed into the limelight in the nation’s capital as a political strategist.
NASHVILLE, Tenn.(TSU News Service) – Civil
rights leader and activist the Rev. Al Sharpton urged Tennessee State
University graduates to continue to build on their achievement.
Sharpton gave the address at
TSU’s graduate commencement ceremony Friday evening in the Howard C. Gentry
Complex. On Saturday, bestselling author Dr. Michael Eric Dyson will address
undergraduate students in the Complex. The ceremony will begin at 8 a.m.
The Rev. Al Sharpton and TSU President Glenda Glover. (TSU Media Relations)
Before Sharpton’s speech, TSU
President Glenda Glover welcomed attendees and lauded the graduates.
“I applaud you for having reached
this milestone,” said Dr. Glover. “Today is only a stepping stone. We thank
you. We salute you.”
Sharpton, a community leader,
politician and minister who serves as the host of PoliticsNation on MSNBC,
challenged graduates “to be the head of your own fan club.”
“Tonight, you have shown you
can achieve something,” he said. “Only you know … what you went through to get
here. But through it all, you got here tonight, which proves that you can
achieve something, and it proves that you can keep achieving if you use the
same discipline and determination you did to graduate here tonight. You can
keep going higher and higher if you push yourself to do that.”
Following his speech, Sharpton, who is a longtime friend of Dr. Glover, was presented an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, an honor he said he will always cherish.
Sharpton’s address, which was
interrupted with applause several times, seemed to move the audience.
Georgetta Harris-Wyatt received
a doctorate in psychology. She said Sharpton’s speech was motivational, that it
“encouraged all the graduate students to see beyond where they are now.”
2019 TSU Graduate students .(TSU Media Relations)
She said Sharpton’s words
inspired her even more to use her degree to help youth.
“Ultimately, I hope to work
with children and adolescents in the juvenile justice system, and help them to
rewrite their stories,” said Harris-Wyatt.
Sharpton is no stranger to TSU. In 2014, he came to the university to take up the cause to have TSU’s 1957- 1959 Men’s Championship Basketball Team, the first-ever to win three national titles back-to back, inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
He joined university officials and staff, including President Glover,
state officials, community leaders and stakeholders, as he presented his cause
during a ceremony in Kean Hall.
As a result of Sharpton’s efforts and that of many others, including TSU alumnus Dr. Richard “Dick” Barnett, a member of all three teams, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced last month that the Tennessee State men’s basketball championship teams of 1957-59 will be one of 12 honorees in this year’s Class of 2019. The class will be celebrated at this year’s enshrinement festivities in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Department of Media Relations
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About Tennessee State University
Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a premier, historically black university and land-grant institution offering 38 bachelor’s degree programs, 24 master’s degree programs, and seven doctoral degrees. TSU is a comprehensive research intensive institution with a R-2 Carnegie designation, and has a graduate school on its downtown Avon Williams Campus, along with the Otis Floyd Nursery Research Center in McMinnville, Tennessee. With a commitment to excellence, Tennessee State University provides students with a quality education in a nurturing and innovative environment that prepares them as alumni to be global leaders in every facet of society. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.
