More than 1,000 seniors and graduate students crossed the stage at the Jack Stephens Center on Saturday, May 15, to receive their degrees.

Watch video from both ceremonies.
View photos on Facebook and Flickr.

Graduates of the colleges of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; Education; and Professional Studies attended the 9:30 a.m. commencement. Graduates of the colleges of Business, Science and Mathematics, and Engineering and Information Technology attended the 3 p.m. event.

The annual graduation and hooding ceremony for the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law was held at 12:30 p.m. at the Statehouse Convention Center.

During the afternoon commencement ceremonies, the Board of Trustees and Chancellor Joel E. Anderson awarded an honorary doctorate of engineering to Dr. Thomas Peterson, director of the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Engineering, a national leadership policy office that provides support for engineering research activities and is a force behind the training and development of the U.S. engineering workforce.

A national policy leader in engineering education, Peterson was chair of the Engineering Deans Council of the American Society of Engineering Education and was one of the founding members of the Global Engineering Deans Council.

But the real stars of UALR commencement ceremonies are the graduates and their families. Here are a few examples:

Corey Thomas

From 2004, when he moved from Atlanta to Little Rock to help support the children of his sister who died of cancer, Corey Thomas felt like he was on a long slide. A proud graduate of Morehouse College, he was later defrauded in real estate transactions, lost a $95,000 job, and was subsequently unable to support himself or his own daughter, not to mention the nieces and nephew he promised to help. He consulted a lawyer for assistance. His lawsuit was later settled and the lawyer asked: Had Thomas ever thought of law school? That gave Thomas the inspiration to give it a try.

He enrolled in UALR’s William H. Bowen School of Law, but the first and second semester grades were not conducive to success. Even exams he felt good about came back with less than desirable grades. “I knew the material and found that I just couldn’t finish the exams no matter how well prepared I was or how hard I tried,” he said. Instead of giving up, Thomas sought help through UALR’s Disability Resource Center. A battery of tests revealed the answer: he was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.

Saturday, he graduated with the honor of being a Bowen Scholar, former parliamentarian of the Black Law Student Association, and a member of the Judge Henry Woods Inn of Court. In addition, he is currently a captain in the Arkansas Army National Guard attached to the Staff Judge Advocate unit as a candidate for the Judge Advocate General Corps.

Jeri Cooper

Earning a graduate degree is not an easy task for anyone, but when the student is virtually blind with impaired hearing, the obstacles are stout. That didn’t stop Jeri Cooper. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., and established a career as the deaf-blind specialist at the Visual Services Center with the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services in Tulsa.

Saturday, Cooper received a master’s degree in rehabilitation teaching. She credits UALR’s Disability Resource Center’s online program for making it possible for her to receive a graduate degree. “Her great sense of humor and her willingness to persevere have been helpful tools in navigating any barriers that she has come across in her journey toward this milestone,” said Melanie Thornton, associate director of the center.

Mallory Fraiche

A talented high school golfer, Mallory Fraiche of New Orleans had her future all mapped out. Then Hurricane Katrina hit – at the height of recruiting season – and the resulting levee failures blew her plans out of the water. Her family was dislocated, and she ended up finishing high school in Texas. But Fraiche found a home and stability on UALR’s women’s golf team.

She graduated Saturday with a double degree in anthropology and psychology, earning a 3.8 cumulative GPA. She made the Chancellor’s List and Dean’s List from 2007 to 2010 and the Sun Belt Conference Commissioner’s list from 2007 to 2010. She played in every event for all four years of competition at UALR, ended up as team captain in 2010 and qualified for the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open, U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, and the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship. She was the first UALR woman golfer to play in the U.S. Open.

Jennifer Francszak

If her grades from Pulaski Tech were any indication, Jennifer Franczak of North Little Rock promised to be an outstanding recruit for the Department of Construction Management in the demanding Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology. Then an out-of-state, multinational corporation merged with a similar out-of-state company. All of a sudden, Franczek’s parents lost their jobs, and the family faced financial upheaval. With focus and determination, Franczak stepped up to help keep her family’s finances afloat, all while maintaining a 4.0 grade point average and providing leadership in her college as president of the Construction Management Honor Society.

Ashley Fejleh

Spring graduate Ashley Fejleh came to UALR to play volleyball. She leaves as veteran member of the UALR Nanotechnology Center’s team, taking part in cancer research using uniquely designed nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes as potential drug carriers and delivery vehicles for anti-tumor agents. A knee injury ended her volleyball and track and field careers, but instead she became a Donaghey Scholar.

A co-author of three published articles regarding tissue engineering for bone growth and the cancer fighting research, Fejleh next plans to study for a medical degree.

Lori Lovin-Self

Lori Lovin-Self was born into a silent world, but through hard work, determination, and perseverance, she graduates this spring with a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies. Born profoundly deaf, the Little Rock native took 11 years to become the first college graduate in her family. In between taking online courses and night classes and working full time at the Arkansas School for the Deaf, she married, adopted her foster child, and endured eight surgeries to get to Saturday’s commencement ceremony.