Date: May 21, 2004
Contact: Michael Hopkins
Phone: (708) 534-7090
Fax: (708) 534-8399
Email: m-hopkins@govst.edu
For Immediate Release
University Park, May 21, 2004 –Governors State University today announced the selection of Oshunda F. Carpenter as student speaker for the university’s Sunday, June 6, commencement ceremony. Carpenter, who carries a 4.0 GPA, is graduating with a master’s degree in communications and training.
Dr. Anna Kong, Governors State professor of Communications, speaks highly of Carpenter’s academic achievement, but praises Carpenter’s human touch as well. “Oshunda is a person of integrity with qualities of openness, positiveness, and confidence. She is truly sensitive to others’ needs and differences.”
Praise comes from Carpenter’s classmates as well. Fellow student Courtney Fitzgerald said Carpenter volunteered her time to tutor more than half of the students in a research seminar.
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She was great,” Fitzgerald said. “I left her tutoring session with a clearer understanding of the material. She’ll be a wonderful teacher.”
Carpenter’s goal after graduation is to teach communication courses in community colleges. She interned at Prairie State College and worked with several professors in communication. Professor Ed Schwarz, coordinator of communication, said Carpenter offered solid contributions to the college’s award-winning forensics team. Schwarz said Carpenter judged at a couple of tournaments this season, too. He said, “She knows her stuff, and the competitors benefited from her constructive criticisms.”
Prairie State’s dean of Continuing and Professional Education, Terri Dousias-Winfree, also worked with Carpenter during her internship. She tapped her to teach introductory courses in computers. “The best word to describe Oshunda is ‘eloquent,’” Dousias-Winfree said. “She’s eloquent in the way she communicates, eloquent in the way she teaches, and eloquent in everything she does.”
Carpenter, one of two GSU student commencement speakers, will speak for two of the university’s colleges, Arts and Sciences and Health Professions, and the Board of Governors Degree Program. Dr. Johnnetta Betsche Cole, the first African American woman to serve as president of Spelman College, will receive an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, at the ceremony.
