BOSSIER CITY – Dr. Jariel Norton stood on the commencement stage before a record crowd of LSUS graduates Friday at Brookshire Grocery Arena.
As the commencement speaker, he offered the standard “You made it,” but added “what did you make it through?”
Norton, a 2009 graduate and successful dentist, real estate professional and battle rapper, made it out of a home where alcoholism and domestic violence were the norm.
For some, degree completion is the triumph over obstacles. But Norton was arrested on felony weapon possession (accidentally took brass knuckles into an airport) just five months after completing dental school in 2013.
Norton again faced an obstacle when he was shot at an ATM in 2019, having to work for six months as a “one-armed dentist” because he was “up to his elbows in school debt.”
But with each difficulty, Norton said he leaned on lessons learned at LSUS to help him through.
“Preparation and perseverance – LSUS put that into me,” said Norton, a Pilot basketball player who became not only the first African-American dentist from Claiborne Parish but the youngest African-American male fellow in the Academy of General Dentistry. “When I first came here, I failed my first two classes.
“But the incredible faculty here at LSUS kept pushing me and taught me how to get out of my own way. I will forever love this university for what they poured into me, and I challenge everyone to pour into others the same way this school poured into you.”
LSUS poured into the more than 1,700 graduates who completed their degrees this spring.
Perfection could be a third ‘P’ on Norton’s list, and while no one graduate is perfect, one LSUS entity has been.
The LSUS baseball team owns the longest winning streak in history among four-year colleges at 54-0 after winning an NAIA regional in Shreveport this week.
But before the Pilots take the NAIA World Series stage starting next Friday, five baseball players marched across the graduation stage with degrees in hand (Cooper Huspen, Lex Meinderts, Anderson Acinger, Jack Parks and Ryan Davenport).
“The success on the field and in the classroom correlate,” said Davenport, one of seven Pilots with 40-plus RBIs this season. “With both of these goals (baseball success and a degree) coming together, it’s been amazing.
“As a team, we start each day 0-0. We’ve been hit in the mouth and faced adversity this season, and we’ve always been able to punch back and stay together.”
The public health graduate intends to enroll in MRI technician school, working with an orthopedic surgeon to assist athletes through injury recovery.
While baseball has strengthened the LSUS brand on a national level, Yakeyta Williams recognized the “LSU” brand from her time as an undergraduate student at New Orleans’ Dillard University.
When it came time for the Atlanta native to advance her corporate career, Williams chose LSUS’s MBA program.
“I’m currently in operations corporate management right now, and this MBA (concentration in human resource management) is a great segue into an HR career,” Williams said. “I wanted to expand my education and skillset to start a new career.
“This program fit my lifestyle – it’s designed for working adults. I started taking two classes per session but slowed it down to one for the last part.”
Jonathan Kuneli was drawn to the MBA program for its accreditation in the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business and its affordability.
“I’m in the insurance business but am looking to get more on the business side like underwriting,” said the Minnesota native who doubled in the marketing and international business concentrations. “It’s a challenging program, and just because it’s online doesn’t mean it wasn’t difficult.
“But you can keep your career while going through this program, and it really fit with my goals.”
Dr. Keith Gunuskey knows something about online education.
As a school superintendent of Wallenpaupack Area School District in Pennsylvania, Gunuskey helped his district navigate the COVID-19 pandemic in which students had to learn remotely for a time.
“I used to think there was some learning loss when you learned remotely,” said Gunuskey, who completed his doctorate in leadership studies. “But this program proved that wrong, and it made me think more critically by doing deeper dives into these topics.
“Online education can be done well through proper proctoring and management.”
Gunuskey completed a concentration in disaster preparedness and emergency management, which dovetails with his service as a volunteer firefighter and membership on local hospital and YMCA boards.
While online education allows LSUS to serve graduates across the nation (49 states and territories) and around the globe (37 countries), the school still has its most impact right here at home.
Haughton native Kaitlyn Hooks completed her undergraduate degree in biochemistry and is considering a master’s in public health, either at LSUS or in Houston or New Orleans.
“I was inspired by my mother’s health battles and watching how medical professionals eased that burden,” said Hooks, who has helped steer others to LSUS as a member of the recruiting office for three years. “I started out in business, but I quickly realized that it wasn’t for me and found my home in biological sciences.”
A trio of local undergraduates connected by family ties found their college homes at LSUS.
Mousa Ghazawneh (biochemistry), Riad Musa (business in entrepreneurship) and Odai Alkhatib (computer science) all said the opportunity to stay close to family was a draw.
The proximity allowed Musa to participate in his family’s “Dollar Mania” business, of which he hopes to operate a branch of the hair and beauty supply store.
Alkhatib is already job hunting in the software development field.
Ghazawneh, who participated in undergraduate research like salvinia’s use as an environmental sponge for toxic materials, is researching pharmacy schools for his next step.
Ghazawneh and Alkhatib are from Bossier with Musa residing in Shreveport.
“LSUS was close to home, and it allowed me to be involved in the family business while getting my education,” Musa said.