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Always Striving: Tyson tells WSSU graduates never to arrive at a final goal, to take risks and to live without fear
'IT IS UNBELIEVABLE': GRADUATES, SUPPORTERS EXPRESS RELIEF, PRIDE
Journal Photo by Lauren Carroll
Joy Daniels of Raleigh celebrates with her peers as their group is announced at Winston-Salem State University’s graduation.
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Published: May 11, 2008
Actress Cicely Tyson told Winston-Salem State University graduates during the university's 2008 spring commencement at Joel Coliseum yesterday to put aside their fears and never stop reaching for their goals.
Parents, grandparents, other family members and well-wishers filled the stands as members of the 2008 graduating class of about 800 marched to their seats.
Tyson, the first black actress to win an Emmy award for outstanding lead actress in a television movie, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, told the graduates that speaking to them was an "awesome responsibility."
In a message that mixed poetry and maxims for life, Tyson joked about her age -- refusing to give it -- then grew solemn as she told the graduates that her experiences in life have deepened her soul.
"I am still here because I cut the fear out of my life," Tyson said, adding later that she "learned I should never take no for an answer."
"I let no one tell me that I can't do anything," she said. "I took risks. I leaped from the highest mountain, and I built my wings as I fell."
Despite having accomplishments, she said, it is important never to arrive at a final goal. "If you have arrived it is over," she said. "Try never to arrive, and you will keep striving."
Among those watching the speech was Alece Oxendine, an English and mass-communications major from Durham. Oxendine said she had gotten through some hard classes to finally get where she is.
"It is unbelievable," she said. "I never thought I would make it, but I did, and I am excited. My family is super proud of me."
Oxendine said her mother, Pamela Oxendine, was supposed to be taking part in the graduation ceremonies yesterday at Shaw University, where she had gone after a 20-year gap spent raising a family to finally get her bachelor's degree. But her mother instead decided to see her daughter graduate in Winston-Salem.
John Sealey, a physical-education major and volunteer football coach at Parkland High School, said he already has an interview lined up for a job at a school in Davidson County.
"I feel like I'm finally getting done," he said, adding that his family was proud of him.
Iris Alexander wasn't graduating yesterday. She had a yellow placard with her daughter's name on it -- Bianca -- and planned to hold it up at the appropriate time.
"I am so relieved and so nervous," she said, adding that her daughter was getting her second degree --in nursing -- and already had a job at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
During the ceremony, WSSU Chancellor Donald Reaves presented Tyson with an honorary degree and got a peck on the cheek from Tyson.
The university said that the Class of 2008 included 537 students getting degrees in sciences, math and other technical fields, while another 326 were nontraditional students.
Students Cherrelle Smith and Andrew Jones shared the honor of highest grade-point average, with 4.0, while another grad, Gary Jermaine Lomack, received a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
■ Wesley Young can be reached at 727-7369 or at
wyoung@wsjournal.com
.
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