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Angel Flagg of Vicksburg wound up with her own fan club at the 8 a.m. Friday ����Ӱ�� nursing and allied health graduation ceremony.

About 25 family and close friends, including her pastor, showed up wearing matching tee-shirts to show their support for Flagg, who received her two-year degree from ����Ӱ�� in radiology.  Needless to say, she was beaming afterward when she saw the group gathered on her behalf.

“It feels great. I’m glad to be done,” she said. The group gathered with her were her “support team and motivation.”

����Ӱ�� graduated nearly 1,200 students over the course of two days of ceremonies, beginning with the nursing and allied health graduation at 8 a.m. on May 12.

“This is a time we as educators enjoy celebrating,” said ����Ӱ�� President Dr. Clyde Muse. He noted that student diplomas this year will include a gold seal commemorating the college’s 100^th anniversary. ����Ӱ�� opened in 1917 and is celebrating the Centennial with a host of activities throughout the calendar year.

Among the graduates, 97 achieved summa cum laude, a 4.0 grade point average; 165 achieved magna cum laude, 3.6 to 3.99 GPA and 255 achieved cum laude, 3.2 to 3.59.

Sandra Wren of Raymond joked that she and Warren Hood of Pearl were the “grandma and grandpa” of the Physical Therapist Assistant class. Wren is 42; Hood, 43.

Getting her degree was “just something I wanted to do for a long time. It was my original plan. I decided one day when the time was right I’d do it,” Wren said. “My husband is a PT (physical therapist) and he encouraged me. We have two small boys so we had to get the timing right.”

Hood said he was inspired when his father was doing therapy, and he went with him. “I decided to change careers in my old age,” he said.

The speaker for nursing and allied health graduates was ����Ӱ�� alumnae Brenda Castleberry, director of education at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center

Castleberry is on the advisory committee for ����Ӱ��’ Associate Degree Nursing program. She complimented ����Ӱ�� nursing and allied health students as being prepared when they perform their clinical rotations with Baptist.

“We need and value your students when they graduate. For decades, the ����Ӱ�� students have done their clinical experiences at Baptist. The faculty and students come prepared for the clinical experience. They are professional, competent and confident as they enter the patient arena. I have personally worked side by side with the ����Ӱ�� faculty for years with great collegial support and strong, professional relationships,” she said. “We always welcome the ����Ӱ�� graduates and appreciate what they contribute.”

����Ӱ�� had three more ceremonies, including ceremonies at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Friday, May 12. Sen. Briggs Hopson spoke to graduates at the 11 a.m. ceremony and Dr. Tom Burnham, interim director of the Mississippi Principal Corps, spoke to the graduate at the 3 p.m. ceremony. Dr. William Bynum, president of Mississippi Valley State University spoke to graduates at 2 p.m. May 14 at ����Ӱ��’ Utica Campus.

[tweetable alt=””]����Ӱ�� graduates nursing, allied health students.[/tweetable]

����Ӱ�� is celebrating its 100^th year of Community Inspired Service in 2017. ����Ӱ�� opened in September 1917 first as an agricultural high school and admitted college students for the first time in 1922, with the first class graduating in 1927. In 1982 ����Ӱ�� Junior College and Utica Junior College merged, creating the ����Ӱ�� District. Today, as Mississippi’s largest community college, ����Ӱ�� is a comprehensive institution with six locations. ����Ӱ�� offers quality, affordable educational opportunities with academic programs of study leading to seamless university transfer and career and technical programs teaching job-ready skills. To learn more, visit or call 1.800.����Ӱ��CC.