Published: May 10, 2008 11:08 pm         

MSU grads mark end of journey

Moonlight runs for a new ink jet cartridge and a meal that would make health gurus scream in agony.

Passing out atop a stack of books with a can of Mountain Dew in hand.

Rolling change — lots of it.

Finals week anxiety.

For more than 1,000 Mountain State University graduates, all that became worthwhile Saturday afternoon.

MSU, celebrating its 75th anniversary, awarded degrees and certificates to 1,162 graduates — 180 of them participated in its graduation ceremony at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.

“You have made it,” MSU President Charles Polk said. “Earning your degrees and certificates took hard work and sacrifice. The journey wasn’t always easy, and at times, we had to remind you. As those of us on the faculty and staff usually are right — see, you are here.”

Polk asked graduates who were the first in their families to graduate from college to stand up. The vast majority did, to thunderous cheers.

Jackie Wilson, a native of Gallup, N.M., was one of those graduates — one who traveled a long road to eventually earn her Associate of Science in radiologic technology.

Wilson, 30, grew up in a family with three sisters and two brothers. She said she joined the Army at 21 to pay for her education, and her time in the military included a Korean deployment. Wilson then spent six years at MSU, working on prerequisites, then the two-year program.

“I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time,” she said. “But I didn’t do it by myself. I have a lot of gratitude to so many people who helped me complete these challenges.”

Wilson said she and classmate Lynzee Cobb — graduating with the same degree Saturday — encouraged each other as they soldiered through the program. Her professors were encouraging. Her husband, Ben Wilson, was also in her corner. Bertha and Leonard Smith — Wilson’s mother and stepfather — came to Beckley from New Mexico to celebrate Saturday.

She regretted her father and stepmother, Marvin and Sandra Applegate, could not make it to Beckley from Missouri. Her father, she said, was a “big inspiration” who encouraged her through her military and college careers.

“Thanks and I love you,” she said to all of her supporters. “I don’t know how I could say, ‘Thank you.’ It’s not enough to say for all the gratitude I have.”

Polk said Saturday was a high point in MSU’s history. Seventy-five years ago, MSU began as Beckley College. Enrollment was less than 100, and it used rented classrooms. The institution has grown to offer bachelor’s, then master’s degrees.

“What a great day! What a wonderful day!” exclaimed Joseph A. Long, a 1957 Beckley College graduate and MSU Alumni Association representative. “Fifty-one years ago, I was just as excited as you are. But we had no ceremony. They just mailed my degree.

“Today is the beginning of all of your tomorrows. ... Remember, no matter where you go, this day forward, grow wherever you are planted. But when the fruits of your labor emerge, remember Mountain State University.”

— E-mail: apridemore@register-herald.com