Dec. 6, 2024–Missouri Western State University will celebrate the achievements of 201 graduates during the fall commencement ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14 in the MWSU Fieldhouse in the M.O. Looney Complex. The public is invited. Doors open to guests at 10:15 a.m.
Missouri Western will confer 171 undergraduate degrees and 30 graduate degrees this semester. Graduates come from Missouri and 12 other states as well as four foreign countries.
The ceremony will feature graduates from the College of Science and Health, General Studies, the College of Business and Professional Studies and the College of Liberal Arts. A brief reception will follow the ceremony in the Looney practice gym, sponsored by the Missouri Western Alumni Association.
The guest speaker for commencement will be Isaac Lee Collins, a Missouri Western alumnus, community entrepreneur, business coach and speaker. The student representative, Dana Vinson, will also speak at the ceremony.
Collins started his entrepreneurial journey fresh out of MWSU in 2011 and has since owned eight for-profit businesses and one nonprofit in various industries from health supplements to professional services. Currently, Collins owns five Yogurtini Frozen Yogurt stores and Streamlined Profit Academy, a business coaching company. He uses his entrepreneurial endeavors to make a positive community impact while teaching others to do the same.
Vinson, from Roland, Iowa, will graduate summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Animation and is the president and founder of Missouri Western’s Digital Animation Club. She served as the head of animation and president of Griffon University for Griffon Production House, participated in marching band and jazz band and served as secretary in the Alpha Chi national honor society and on the executive board for Phi Boota Roota national percussion fraternity. Vinson has represented Missouri Western at numerous events, including SIGGRAPH, a conference on computer graphics and interactive technique.
Other public commencement-related activities include:
- International and Multicultural Sash Ceremony, 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13, Hoff Conference Rooms, Blum Union rooms 218-219
- Nurses Pinning Ceremony, 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, Fulkerson Center
Missouri Western State University is a student-centered learning community preparing individuals for lives of excellence through applied learning. Missouri Western is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit missouriwestern.edu.