West Liberty University Fall Commencement Set for Saturday
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West Liberty University will celebrate its fall graduates at 11 a.m. Saturday during its fall commencement ceremony.
The event will be held at West Liberty's Academic, Sports and Recreation Complex, and social distancing and masking will be required.
Doors open for seating at 9:30 a.m. and tickets are not required. The commencement ceremonies will be streamed live on Topper Station and will be broadcast live on social media for those unable to attend.
A reception for graduates, guests and families will be held in the College Union immediately following the ceremony. Parking will be available for guests behind the ASRC.
The university has announced a trio of speakers who will join university President W. Franklin Evans, who will preside over the ceremony. The keynote speaker will be attorney and Ohio County School Board President David Croft.
Croft, who graduated with an accounting degree from West Liberty in 1989 before earning his law degree at West Virginia University, has practiced law in Wheeling, and is a member of the law firm of Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC. His legal practice focuses on complex business transactions and tax planning.
He is a member of the West Liberty University Foundation and was inducted into the WLU Alumni Wall of Honor in 2018.
"I know that our graduates will enjoy hearing Mr. Croft's words of wisdom," Evans said. "As an alumnus and former chairman of the WLU Foundation Board of Directors, he has a comprehensive knowledge of West Liberty University. As an attorney and community leader, he has proven himself skillful. We are honored by his presence."
The student speaker will be Juilana Haug of Waynesboro, Virginia. Haug, a four-year member of the women's soccer team, is graduating with a degree in creative arts therapy and earned a 3.95 grade point average. The summa cum laude graduate earned the highest GPA of any graduate of West Liberty's College of Liberal and Creative Arts.
The alumni speaker will be Hillary Southworth, who graduated in 2015 with a 3.9 GPA in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. She also was a first-team All-American and Mountain East Conference Player of the Year for the Hilltoppers women's basketball team. Southworth currently works as a Sales and Digital Marketing professional for Varda Partners and Social Media Marketing Coordinator for EVO.