Albany State University graduates more than 300 students

ALBANY — More than 300 degree candidates of Albany State University marched up for their hard-earned “sheepskins” at the Albany Civic Center Saturday. Each of them seemed filled with pride of accomplishment and a level of relief.

One by one, at the announcement of their names, the candidates stepped forward from the ranks of study programs like business administration, health and physical education, history, psychology, social work, criminal justice and art.

“It’s a momentous event,” said Ankechi Ndukwe, who would receive a bachelor’s degree in mass communication. “It’s been five years now and I’m excited to be finally graduating. I came here from Stone Mountain because my cousin was here and he told me how great this school was. I can barely get the words out to say how I feel.”

Ndukwe said that if she was not accepted for graduate school in London, she plans to travel to Nigeria to help set up journalism markets there.

Niema Graham, originally from Atlanta and another mass communications major, was equally elated.

“Today’s a major milestone in my young adult life,” Graham said. “I feel very accomplished and proud of myself to be able to walk across the stage today.”

Graham said she plans to attend graduate school at Georgia State University in the spring, and ultimately pursue a career in television and film management.

“My whole family has come down for this,” Graham said. “I have some (family) from several cities and they all managed to come down and spend some time with me.”

“Maybe when I walk out there, it’ll be real,” said lifelong Albany resident Roy Eaddy, just minutes from receiving his music diploma. “Right now it’s just a Saturday. “Now I’ll get a job and try to move out of Albany. It’s time to go somewhere else.”

Featured speaker for the commencement was Glenda A. Hatchett, judge, community advocate and noted author. In 1990 Hatchett was appointed Chief Presiding Judge of the Fulton County Juvenile Court — the first African-American in Georgia to hold that position — and head of one of the largest juvenile court systems in the country.

According to her commencement biography, Hatchett is also the central character in an Emmy-nominated, syndicated television show “Judge Hatchett,” now in its 12 season.

After assuring her audience she was not there to deliver “one of those climb every mountain, ford every stream” types of speeches, but would instead be brief and to the point, Hatchett captivated the candidates with a story from her early childhood and her admonition to “write your own story.”

Hatchett said when she was in first grade in Atlanta and it came her time to read a passage in a book out loud, she found the page had been torn out. Understandably upset, she told her teacher she needed a new book with all the pages. ‘Glenda, colored children don’t get new books,’ was her teacher’s response.

“That day was etched in my soul,” Hatchett said

Hatchett said she was still upset when she left school that day and later told her father she wanted a new book.

“‘Your teacher is right,’ is what my daddy told me,” Hatchett said. “Colored children don’t get new books. Then he told me to go and get my crayons, sit down at my table and write my own story. He didn’t let me feel sorry for what I didn’t have. He made me understand that I could do what I could do with what I did have. He told me to write my own story. They’ll tell you that you can’t because you’re African-American. They’ll tell you that you can’t because you grew up poor. You have to write your own story.”