Husband-Wife Grads, Misfortune Overcome, Six-Figure Jobs Top Commencement Stories at University of Richmond
May 12, 2006
After seeing to the college education of their two daughters, Lloyd and Mae Jackson of Richmond decided to complete their own bachelor’s degrees. They’ll receive them—his in liberal arts and hers in human resource management—on May 13, their 26th wedding anniversary, from the University of Richmond’s School of Continuing Studies. Both grew up in Prince Edward County during the era of massive resistance, delaying their completion of high school. They earned associate’s degrees from Virginia community colleges, but felt they wanted the opportunities for career growth that a B.A. would give them. Lloyd is operations director of the Department of Juvenile Justice, where he has worked for 25 years. With her new bachelor’s degree, Mae qualified for and got a new job as a procurement officer for the Department of Corrections.
Anna Nehring will graduate—at age 18—with a degree in biology, one course short of a psychology minor, and a 3.7 GPA. Nehring was homeschooled in Connecticut, where she completed high school and had already begun taking classes at Central Connecticut State University at age 15. She transferred to Richmond for what she told the Richmond student newspaper, The Collegian, is a smaller campus and friendlier environment. Nehring plans a hitch in the Peace Corps, followed by environmental work in Latin America, and either elementary school teaching or social work. Did she miss college social life, being so much younger than her college mates? "I was 17 last year so I couldn't get into any bars or clubs, but I don't do that very much anyway,” she told The Collegian.
Goldwater Scholar Tim Ferguson of New Windsor, Md., a mathematics major, will head straight into the math Ph.D. program at the University of Michigan on a full scholarship. Ferguson spent his three college summers performing National Science Foundation-sponsored math research that his faculty mentor, Bill Ross, says “reaches boundaries of mathematical research.” Ferguson studies “Laplace transforms”—a technique for analyzing the input and output of electrical circuits, harmonic oscillators, optical devices, mechanical systems and other linear time-invariant systems. Laplace transforms provide alternative understanding of the systems, while drastically reducing the complexity of the math calculations required for their analysis.
David Raiser of Lititz, Pa., who will graduate with both a B.S. in biology and a B.A. in music, is an accomplished French horn player and vocalist, plays in the University Wind Ensemble and Orchestra, sings in the university select choir Schola Cantorum, and directs The Octaves men’s a capella group. Most notably, he is a composer whose works have been performed by eighth blackbird. Although his composition professor Benjamin Broening describes him as a strong candidate for a leading graduate program in musical composition, Raiser will enter Harvard University with a full fellowship to pursue work in biomedical science.
Marybe Assouan of Cote d’Ivoire lost her mother and sustained crippling injuries in an auto accident while returning home from taking the SAT II during her high school senior year. Told she would be confined to a wheelchair for life, Assouan overcame her double spinal cord injury, learned to walk again, and left for college in the United States at the University of Richmond. A short time later, her father died unexpectedly at age 53. A consistently excellent accounting student, Assouan won the Robins School of Business’ Norman Award as the most outstanding graduate of 2006. She will remain in Richmond after commencement to work for Deloitte.
Saona Chapman of North Stonington, Conn., co-captain of the women’s basketball team, will defer her admission to Harvard Divinity School for a year to play women’s professional basketball in Europe. Chapman carried a 3.5 GPA as a leadership studies and religion double major, but feels she has done her best work beyond the campus in the community by organizing an annual food drive, participating in Habitat for Humanity construction projects, speaking at schools, volunteering at Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond and working as a tutor with Church Hill Activities & Tutoring. Chapman is a leader of numerous campus religious activities.
Andy Nagraj of Yorktown, Va., has been accepted into The School at Steppenwolf, a professional training residency for actors at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Admission is highly competitive. Nagraj has received rave reviews from the Richmond Times-Dispatch and Style Weekly for his role as the Beast in Theatre IV's production of "Disney's Beauty and the Beast," currently running at the Empire Theater in Richmond and closing May 14—commencement day. The show must go on, and Nagraj has received approval to graduate in absentia, since he has matinee performances that day.
Godfrey Plata of Gardena, Calif., has been accepted into the highly competitive Teach for America program. Plata—who will be the student speaker at the main commencement ceremony—has committed to teach at least two years in underserved urban and rural schools.
Plata researched accessibility issues while writing a play for the blind community last summer. See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12206029/site/newsweek/.
Laura Barrosse-Antle a chemistry major from Hockessin, Del., will attend Oxford University, England, next year to study for a Ph.D. in physical and theoretical chemistry.
A number of Robins School of Business seniors will be earning high starting salaries on Wall Street straight out of college. Five have signed job contracts with major firms. Although their starting salaries are usually not quite six figures, signing and year-end bonuses probably will bump up their aggregate pay to that level.
Business majors aren’t the only Richmond seniors headed to Wall Street. MacKenzie Winner, a history major from Fernandina Beach, Fla., will join the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs in New York—whose executives see valuable skills in arts and sciences graduates and recruit them at Richmond.
Not all business majors want Wall Street careers, such as Chris Shackleton of Burr Ridge, Ill. Shackleton is close to signing on as an associate director of marketing for Tsunami Capital LLC. The small venture capital company in Chicago owns several nightclubs there and wants to expand. The company also manages a hedge fund and helps small startups fill out the paperwork to become legal enterprises. Tsunami also manages the Tsunami Foundation, a charity that provides mentoring and scholarships to Chicago high school students who are the first in their family to have a chance at going to college.