{"id":1700,"date":"2019-09-20T02:32:10","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T06:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=1700"},"modified":"2021-09-21T02:33:46","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T06:33:46","slug":"founders-week-2019-summer-commencement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/founders-week-2019-summer-commencement\/","title":{"rendered":"Founders\u2019 Week 2019 ~ Summer Commencement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Aspen Holmes, Kyle Goodwin and fiancee Samantha Phillips<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Thursday, September 12, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 45 graduates who were celebrated during Thursday’s University of Maryland Eastern Shore summer commencement included an athlete who found UMES while competing for an in-state rival, a couple who met in class and plan to marry, and an entrepreneurial undergraduate with a big heart.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2019 edition of the university’s September graduation exercises featured a new wrinkle — the inclusion of a handful of undergraduates who completed degree requirements before the traditional December ceremony.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Held during Founders’ Week, past September graduations typically were exclusively for graduate students who completed their doctor of physical therapy studies<\/strong><\/a> so they could qualify to take a national licensure exam in October.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among newly minted alumni was Samantha Phillips<\/strong> of Chesapeake, Va., who did her undergraduate studies at Longwood University, where she majored in kinesiology<\/strong><\/a> and played four years of varsity soccer.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phillips was uninterested in a career \u201cthat put (her) behind a desk,\u201d so she pursued a graduate degree in physical therapy — a decision inspired by her experience caring for a special-needs child when she was a teenager.  She hopes to specialize in pediatric care.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phillips described her UMES experience as rewarding, in more ways than one.\u00a0 She plans to marry one of her classmates,\u00a0Kyle Goodwin<\/strong>\u00a0of Salisbury, who got an approving round of applause when President Heidi M. Anderson told the audience about the couple’s love story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maggie Jo Holecheck and Ariel Richard<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Among those in the Fitzgerald center audience were Ariel Richard’s<\/strong> relatives, who traveled from her hometown, Los Angeles, Calif., to see the former Coppin State University volleyball player receive her physical therapy degree.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe program here is awesome,\u201d Richard said. \u201cThere are great professors who open to work closely with students above and beyond what you would expect.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After spending seven years pursuing college degrees in Maryland, Richard will return to the West Coast, and already has started networking with UMES alumni who work in the area.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard’s classmate Maggie Jo Holecheck<\/strong> of Cambridge, Md., came to UMES from Salisbury University, where, like her classmate Kyle Goodwin, she majored in exercise science.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only was UMES a comfortable geographic fit for her graduate school plans, Holecheck said the university is known for offering smaller student-to-teacher classes and has a reputation of producing graduates successful in earning national certification to practice in the profession on the first try.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s a wonderful program,\u201d Holecheck said. \u201cI come away from my experience here completely satisfied.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maranda Emily Mitchell<\/strong> of Salisbury was among three undergraduates who received a bachelor degree during the Founders’ Week commencement.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mitchell studied accounting while also getting real world experience working as an intern for Granger and Company, PA, a Salisbury accounting firm.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years ago, Mitchell started her own dog-walking and pet-sitting business.  She also made time to do volunteer work as a puppy foster parent for Grass Roots Rescue in Delaware — and at Peninsula Regional Medical Center, where she provided much-needed cuddling for babies in the Special Care Nursery.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mitchell crossed the Fitzgerald stage confidently knowing she had a job awaiting – she’ll be joining Granger and Company as an accountant.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sept. 12, 2019 was a day filled with \u201cHawk Pride\u201d in more ways than one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday, September 12, 2019 The 45 graduates who were celebrated during Thursday’s University of Maryland Eastern Shore summer commencement included an athlete who found UMES while competing for an in-state rival, a couple who met in class and plan to marry, and an entrepreneurial undergraduate with a big heart.   The 2019 edition of the university’s…Read more Founders\u2019 Week 2019 ~ Summer Commencement<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-1700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1700"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=1700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}