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Commencement 2007

High-achieving students to carry schools' banners

KU students who have excelled academically have been selected to carry banners for KU's 13 schools and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences during commencement.

As banner carriers, the students will lead their fellow graduates in the traditional march down Mount Oread into Memorial Stadium at 2:30 p.m. May 20 for KU's 135th commencement.

Banner bearers also will join university officials on a platform in the stadium for the ceremonial conferring of degrees.

Banner carriers first became a part of KU commencement activities in spring 1908, according to the late Robert Taft, a KU chemistry professor from 1922 to 1955 and author of "Across the Years on Mount Oread," published in 1941.

The students are listed below by hometown and KU school they are representing.

  • Lester Big Goose Jr., School of Social Welfare, Lawrence
  • Anne McEnroe, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Lawrence
  • Michael Merz, School of Engineering, Garden City
  • Judee Herring, School of Nursing, Winchester
  • Crissy Del Percio, William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Kansas City, Mo.
  • Angela Armenta, School of Law, Leawood
  • James Bowman, School of Business, Overland Park
  • Sarah Shulda, Graduate School, Overland Park
  • Cindy Scott, School of Education, Overland Park
  • Ryan Vancura, School of Medicine, La Cygne
  • Adam Driggers, School of Fine Arts, Hillsboro
  • Grace Ward, School of Allied Health, Erie
  • Jariat Oyetunji, School of Pharmacy, Houston, Texas
  • Carla Hermida, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Cuenca, Ecuador.

NOTABLE ALUMS

Larry Parson, chairman and chief executive of Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway Co., is a 1967 graduate of the KU School of Business. In his tenure, he has guided the company through financial troubles, including debt restructuring in 1994, to annual revenues of about $76 million. The company employs about 400 people, and Parson has said it is looking to add to that number, following the national trend of rail companies increasing their workforce to 181,000.