Congratulations to Biology’s recent graduates!
Posted on August 9, 2022
Biology Graduation Celebration Address
by Dr. John Lepri
Dr. Maclolm Schug presents for John Lepri
Greetings to the wonderful families and friends who supported our graduates. Thank you.
To the graduates: I wish I could be there with you today. However, ‘Rona is having its way with me now. I won’t give a list of what is wrong in the world today. You know what is wrong.
Try to see things in a different light. “What is wrong” is really “what is an opportunity.? What have you learned about human biology? Organ functions? Gene regulation? Disease ecology? Drug abuse? Habitat destruction? Wars and racial inequities? You know all that stuff, so I won’t continue. Those are not the greatest attributes of humans.
Rather, communication and cooperation are what we do best.
So, how do you tackle the “wrongs” and make them into “opportunities?” To reiterate: with humanity’s greatest biological accomplishments: communication and cooperation. Can anyone here make a cell phone on their own? Didn’t think so.
Let’s run with these opportunities you are going to tackle …
Advice #1 SHOW UP Protect your integrity: be there when you say you will.
Advice #2 SAY HELLO You’ll have many more opportunities by breaking the ice with people.
Advice #3 WHO KNOWS Find the right person to ask questions, especially: “How did you get started in your career?”
Advice #4 ASK QUESTIONS Finding out who knows leads you to getting expert advice on everything you need help with
Advice #5 APPLY Swing the bat. Put your hat into the ring. You never know until you try.
Advice #6 SUBSCRIBE ScienceNews, NewScientist, plus many many more. Continue to feed your brain and learn new stuff every day.
Communication and cooperation are humanity’s greatest capabilities! make them yours
Take a picture of the easels. Then when someone asks you what the commencement speech was about, show them the picture!
You are all very capable, and we very much need your help!
December 2021 Graduating Class
Alvaro Alvarez BS
Tania Banos-Arroyo BA
Paul John Benedictos BS
Iyonla Blanks BS
Joan Bowman BS
Chloe Brewington BA
Idasia Brickhouse BA
Sydney Chamberlain BA
Cynthia Corriher BA
Alissa Cross BA
Angel Davis BS
Bruna De Souza Vantini BS
Jervonte Degree BS
Christopher Ellington BS
Mitchell Flores-Rodriguez BS
Jared Freudenrich BS
Paola Gainey BA
Kionah Gaither BS
Jacqueline Galvez Olguin BS
Olla Helmi BA
Diego Hoover BS
Charlene Hubbard BS
Josiah Joly BS
Nelson Juarez BS
Charlotte Kohn BA
Doumdongar Samuel Koularambaye BA
Caroline Lee BS
Tiana Lennon BS
John Lineberry BS
William Mann BA
Taryn Manning BA
Natallie Mccauley BA
Amber McIlwaine BA
Bradley Mendano BS
Autumn Mills BS
Boris Morales BA
Theodore Morgan BS
Dena Nguyen BS
Sukriti Ranjan BA
Kiersten Red BS
Larissa Rodriguez BS
Andrea Rodriguez Flores BS
Cassandra Sam BS
Cody Sandeen BA
Alexis Schenck BS
Alexandra Settle BS
Brooke Shears BS
Caitlin Shrimp BS
Tuzelle Simmons BS
Jordan Smalls BA
Ujune So BS
Tina Stewart BA
Daquantae Streater BA
Nicholas Tastet BS
Katerina Tsekouras BA
Aiyanah Tyler-Cooper BA
Zikora Udeagbala BS
Shail Vyas BS
Aliyah Warris BA
Drake Weathers BS
Mason Webb BA
Aviana Whitehead BS
Hannah Zitting BA
Ansa Zubair BS
May and August 2022 Graduating Class
Andi Binder PhD
Bishwa Giri PhD
Anna Tagnasoli PhD
Prashant Waiker PhD
Nikolaus Bueschke MS
Corey Burton MS
Olivia Chapman MS
Hanna Lee Dixon MS
Sarah Pellizzari MS
Laith Abdelmajid BS
Norvinyo Abiti BS
Feyintoluwa Adewumi BA
Medeah Al Jazrawi BS
Nada Al-Akhal BS
Nour Azzam BS
Ivey Blake BS
Colby Borges BS
Haley Bowman BA
Zachary Bunch BS
Christopher Bunton BS
Laura Cardoso BS
Kristi Clapp BA
Stephen Clay BS
Kristen Delgado BA
Nakiah Dillard BA
Yarah Ebraheem BS
Nautica Edwards BS
Cheyenne Elliott BS
Austin Fausnett BS
Kennedy Ferguson BS
Destiny Franklin BS
Summer Fulbright BS
Patrick Gallagher BS
Victoria Garcia BA
Eliza Glass BS
Elijah Grayson BA
Myia Hall BA
Ally Hannon BA
Najayah Harris BA
Ifra Hayat BS
James Hembree BA
Chelsey Herrera BA
Hunter Hoogkamp BS
Toshira Isley BS
Bethany Isom BA
Brooklynn Jakab BS
Coryanna Jefferies BA
Ashley Jolin BS
Katie Khang BS
Sky Kihuwa-Mani BS
Samantha Lagrama BS
Tricia Levi BA
Jennifer Lopez-Miranda BS
Madison Loudermilt BS
Taylor Lovett BS
Kathy Ly BS
Johnetta Lyles BS
Jade Lyons BS
Sophie Marboah BA
Ellery Mclaurin BA
Shamari Miller BS
Nicolas Mizero Sibo BS
Taylor Monk-watkins BA
Wendy Moscoso BA
Pauline Moussi BA
Nebyou Mulugeta BA
Zabed Muriuki BS
Kinda Musa BS
Abigail Muscoreil BS
Caroline Nelson BS
Emamoke Odafe BS
Melika Osareh BS
Megan Otey BA
Sianna Pacheco BS
Madison Padgett BA
Jinal Patel BS
Princess Perkins BA
Willy Pina BS
Kyle Presting BA
Savannah Price BS
Dejha Queiroz BA
Jorgelis Quijano Nunez BS
Lucia Ramirez-joseph BS
Joshua Rangel BS
H’Roseline Rcom BA
Davina Ricketts BS
Hhim Rmah BS
Rebecca Rogers BS
Yisel Rojas Guerrero BS
Stephanie Russell BA
Natalie Sabiston BA
Joseph Santiago Bermudez BS
Hannah Slaughter BS
Nicole Souply BA
Natalie Swaim BS
Ciara Tenney BS
Lexie Tran BA
Page Turner BA
Silvana Vaca BA
Logan Vota BS
Kara Walden BS
Hallett Ward BS
Savannah White BS
Julia Worcester BS
Kevin Xiong BS
