RAYMOND – Fall graduation ceremonies are set for Dec. 15 at the Muse Center on the Rankin Campus as students earn credentials from ºÚÁÏÉçÇø.
The college will confer 940 credentials to 1,058 students set to graduate in three ceremonies. All nursing and allied health graduates will receive their degrees at 8 a.m., with commencement for academic and career-tech graduates to follow in separate ceremonies at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Joy Rhoads
Joy Rhoads, an instructor of history and geography and coordinator of the Honors Program at the Rankin Campus, is the speaker for all three ceremonies.
Rhoads, of Brandon, a 24-year employee of ºÚÁÏÉçÇø, holds master’s degrees in geography and history from the University of Southern Mississippi and Mississippi State University, respectively. Her bachelor’s degree in history is also from MSU. She has directed the Honors Program since 2016 and is a faculty advisor for the Alpha Omicron Omega chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year colleges in the United States.
While at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø, she has been named a ºÚÁÏÉçÇø Hero and a Teacher of the Year for the campus PTK chapter and the Mississippi Humanities Council. Rhoads is a member of the National Council for Geographic Education and the Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers.
Rhoads has been named the college’s faculty honoree for the Legislature’s HEADWAE (Higher Education Appreciation Day – Working for Academic Excellence) program for 2018.