1,025 Rams expected to graduate May 14

More than 1,000 students will pack Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum May 14 for spring commencement exercises.

At 9:45 a.m. bachelor and master candidates, faculty and staff and friends and family will listen with their peers, students, and loved ones to the commencement speaker WSSU alumnus, sports journalist and motivational speaker Stephen A. Smith.

"Smith will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters on the recommendation of Chancellor Donald J. Reaves, and with the concurrence of the faculty committee on honorary degrees," said Nancy Young, director of public relations.

Nearly 500 students graduated in December and because it was the last fall commencement, next year's spring graduation can expect to see about 1,500 graduates.

Arika Pugh, a graduating senior from Cheltenham, Md., is getting her bachelor of science in exercise science.

"I'm just glad it's [graduation] finally here," Pugh said.

"It took hard work and focus, but it was worth it."

Smith's journalism career began covering high school sports at the New York Daily News in 1993.

He has made his way through the ranks of sports reporters and became a general sports columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2003, one of only 21 African Americans in the nation to hold the title at that time.

Smith has been seen on Fox SportsNet and as an analyst on ESPN. He has also taken lessons learned from the athletes, celebrities and newsmakers he's covered and used them to develop presentations as a motivational speaker.

Smith devotes much of his free time to speaking to young people and for charitable causes throughout the country.