FAMU Alum, Scotty Barnhart and LaToya Miles, Inspired Spring 2024 Graduates
Florida A&M University (FAMU) alumni Scotty Barnhart and LaToya Myles, Ph.D., inspired spring 2024 graduates during the May 3-4 commencement ceremonies.
More than 1,200 graduate and undergraduate students from the University’s 14 colleges and schools received degrees during the Friday and Saturday events.
During the Friday evening ceremony, alumna Myles, urged the 375 graduates from the College of Education, College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Institute of Public Health, the School of Allied Services and the School of the Environment to keep climbing.
“You are graduating today because you refused to give up. You have been on this educational journey for years and you are at the pinnacle of it,” said Myles, deputy director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Air Resources Laboratory (NOAA ARL). “As you exit the stage this evening, you are taking the first steps into the next phase of your life. You may have a job waiting for you or perhaps you’re going to graduate school or professional school. Graduates you have climbed the ‘Highest of Seven Hills’ and you have come out on top.”
During the Friday ceremony, FAMU conferred an honorary doctorate on College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Institute of Public Health graduate Michael Johnson, executive vice president and CEO Florida Pharmacy Association.(I can’t remember whether or not he is retired.)
At 9 a.m. Saturday, alumnus Barnhart urged the 384 graduates from the College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, School of Architecture and Engineering Technology to treasure knowledge.
Barnhart, director of the Count Basie Orchestra, shared advice he received.
Barnhart recalled growing up in Atlanta and being surrounded by brilliant African American minds such as Dr. Martin Luther “Daddy King” King, Sr., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King, Julian Bond, John Lewis and Vernon Jordan and others.
“As you prepare to go out into this world, try to align yourself with the greatest thinkers, intellectuals, and movers and shakers you can find and not just those in your field so that you can expand your mind and know what true excellence is,” Barnhart told the gathering. “So that you don’t find yourself doing something that is based truly on emotion without the benefit of intellect.”
As a young man raised in Atlanta, Barnhart benefitted from the wisdom of King Sr., who passed along unforgettable lessons.
“Growing up in his Ebenezer Baptist Church and listening to his sermons every Sunday, I learned two very important lessons from him—the first was unconditional love,” said Barnhart, who recalled King Sr., responding to the assassination of his son in 1968, the drowning death of his second, son, A.D. King in 1969 and the murder of his wife, Alberta Christine Williams King in 1974.
“After all of those terrible tragedies whenever I was with him, I could literally feel his peaceful aura of love and compassion. Many people hate and can foolishly carry an attitude with others for days weeks months and even years simply based on the most trivial of things, yet here is a man who went to visit the assassin of his wife in prison,” Barnhart said. “I learned from his example and maybe you can too.”
Barnhart, a member of the Count Basie Orchestra for more than 30 years and its leader since 2013, also developed an appreciation for knowledge from King Sr.
“From Daddy King I learned to develop an aversion to perpetual ignorance,” said the three-time Grammy winner. “He taught us that it is one thing to be ignorant of something, but quite another to remain ignorant. I hope that you realize or are taking advantage of the fact that you live in a world where an unprecedented and unlimited amount of information is literally at your fingertips.”
2023-2024 SGA President Londe Mondelus celebrates receiving her degree.(Credit: Ernest Nelfrard)
During the weekend ceremonies, President Robinson presented the President’s Student Leadership Award to 2023-2024 Trustee and Student Government Association President Londe Mondelus, 2023-2024 Student Government Association Vice President Jeffrey K. Francis, and Miss FAMU 2023-2024 Kendall Johnson, the 117th Miss FAMU, who all received undergraduate degrees.