University of Mount Olive Graduation Planned For May5
MOUNT OLIVE – University of Mount Olive will graduate approximately 320 students at its 58th spring commencement on Saturday, May 5, 2012. Graduation exercises are scheduled for 2:00 PM in the George and Annie Dail Kornegay Arena.
The commencement speaker will be North Carolina General Assembly Representative Efton M. Sager. Sager served as a Wayne County Commissioner for eight years before being elected to the NC House in November of 2008, where he is now serving his second term. He is currently serving as chairman on the Agriculture Committee and the Agriculture and Forestry Awareness Study Commission. He is vice-chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Natural and Economic Resources.
Other committees on which Sager serves as a member include: Appropriations, Commerce and Job Development, Education, Elections, Homeland Security, Military, and Veterans Affairs, House Select Committee on Agricultural Regulations, and Joint Legislative Elections Oversight Committee.
Representative Sager served in the United States Air Force for 21 years. His service included Korea and also Vietnam, where he was awarded the Bronze Star. Sager and his wife, Delores, belong to the United Methodist faith, and they are very active members of Brogden United Methodist Church in Dudley. The Sagers have two adult children Debra Kornegay and David Sager, and two grandchildren, Jacob Kornegay and LeeAnn Sager.
While in the armed forces, Sager attended various management schools, and in 1981 he received an associate degree in business from Wayne Community College. Prior to his election to the North Carolina House, Sager was employed as thebBusiness manager of a logging company for over 25 years.
Preceding graduation University of Mount Olive will hold its traditional baccalaureate service in Southern Bank Auditorium in Raper Hall at 10:30 AM. The Reverend Kelley Smart will be the keynote speaker.
Smart was ordained to the Gospel ministry in the spring of 2005. He has served as associate pastor and is currently senior pastor of Free Union Original Free Will Baptist Church near Walstonburg in Greene County. In 2004 Smart graduated Summa Cum Laude from University of Mount Olive with a bachelor of science degree in religion. He received the Dr. Thomas R. Morris Award for Academic Excellence and the W. Burkette Raper Ministerial Award while at Mount Olive. In 2010 he obtained his master of divinity degree from Campbell University Divinity School. Smart currently serves on the executive committee for the Central Conference of Original Free Will Baptists and as a member of the Original Free Will Baptist Press Foundation Board. Smart and his wife, Marci, reside in Farmville.
University of Mount Olive is a private institution rooted in the liberal arts tradition with defining Christian values. The College, sponsored by the Convention of Original Free Will Baptists, has locations in Mount Olive, New Bern, Wilmington, Goldsboro, Research Triangle Park, Washington and Jacksonville. For more information, visit www.moc.edu.