Oakwood University Scheduled to Graduate 400

Four hundred members of the Class of 2016 have been approved to participate in the Oakwood University Commencement scheduled for May 7. The Commencement speaker is General Dennis L. Via, MHRM, the 18th Commander of the U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC), headquartered at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. AMC is the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness to ensure dominant land force capability for the U.S. Warfighter and our allies.

Click here to see the complete schedule (May 5-7) of activities and the Commencement Program booklet.

Employee Notes

Each year, the Associated Church Press, a professional organization dedicated to supporting excellence in journalism within the Christian community, honors faith communicators' best work with the "Best of the Church Press" awards. New and established newspapers, newsletters, magazines, journals, news services, E-zines, bloggers and websites earn kudos, as do the many excellent entries in social media and video. The Journal of Adventist Education earned an Award of Merit, in the category of Reporting and Writing, for its Summer 2015 Special Issue. The article, titled Adventist Education in the Urban Setting, was written by Ella Smith Simmons, Davenia J. Lea, Edwin Hernandez, Des and Derek Cummings, Gaspar Colon, Andrea Nagy, and Prudence Pollard; and designed by Harry F. Knox.

Winrock International announced recently that Dr. Onesimus Otieno, professor of biology at Oakwood University, is one of 125 volunteers awarded with the President's Volunteer Service Award, a national honor offered in recognition of volunteer service.

Established in 2003, the Award is available to individuals, groups and families who have met or exceeded requirements for volunteer service and have demonstrated exemplary citizenship through volunteering. As one of thousands of certifying organizations participating in the Award program, Winrock International confers the award to recognize the outstanding achievements of its volunteers.

Winrock has a long history of international volunteer service, and more than 200 volunteers have been known to perform volunteer service each year on behalf of the organization.

Dr. Otieno contributed over 250 hours of volunteer service on an international assignment for Winrock's U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Farmer-to-Farmer Program in Senegal. This summer, Dr. Otieno will be training faculty and staff on pedagogical skills at the Center for Entrepreneurship Development & Vocation Studies in Ado-Ekiti, southwest Nigeria.

The Award is issued by the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation, a group created by President Bush to recognize the valuable contributions volunteers are making to our Nation. The Council comprises leaders in government, media, entertainment, business, education, nonprofits and volunteer service organizations, and community volunteering.

Picture of the Week

In 1978, these two students became alums of Oakwood. Can you guess who they are?

About Oakwood

The mission of Oakwood University, a historically black, Seventh-day Adventist institution, is to transform students through biblically-based education for service to God and humanity.