ACU awarded 810 degrees May 9, 10 in three Commencement ceremonies at Moody Coliseum.
The Friday, May 9, ceremony at 7 p.m. awarded 216 master’s and 34 doctoral degrees. On Saturday, May 10, 560 bachelor’s degrees were presented in two ceremonies – 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Undergraduate degree candidates from the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; the College of Biblical Studies; and the Onstead College of Science and Engineering participated in the 10 a.m. ceremony. Undergraduate degree candidates from the College of Business Administration, the College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, the College of Health and Human Services, the College of Leadership and Professional Studies, and the College of Learning and Development participated in the 2 p.m. ceremony.
Dr. Stephen Johnson, chief executive officer of ACU Dallas, gave the charge to the graduate class at the Friday ceremony. Shannon Wilburn, a 1992 alumnus of ACU and the co-founder and brand ambassador of Just Between Friends consignment franchise, gave the charge to the undergraduate class at both ceremonies on Saturday.
All three ceremonies will be livestreamed; visit acu.edu/commencement for more information.
Outlive Your Life Award
In both Saturday ceremonies, Olympian Earl Young (’62) was awarded the Dale and Rita Brown Outlive Your Life Award. A standout student-athlete for the Wildcats, Young won Olympic gold for the U.S. in Rome in 1960, running a 45.6-second lap on the second leg of the 4×400-meter relay to help the American team win. He also finished sixth in the finals of the 400-meter dash and, at 19, was the youngest gold medal winner on the U.S. team in Rome. He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in June 1961.
In 2011, Young found himself in the race of his life when he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and needed a blood stem cell transplant. Out of millions of potential donors in the registry, only one was found to be a genetic match – a woman he had never met from Germany – and he underwent a successful bone marrow transplant. From that experience, the idea for Earl Young’s Team was born, and today, the organization travels around the country raising awareness and locating potential bone marrow donors. The organization partners with nonprofit DKMS to hold registration drives, primarily at college campuses, to encourage people to take a cheek swab test and be added to the registry as a potential match. Young’s efforts have resulted in more than 150 donor matches, including 28 from ACU, as of April 2025.
The Outlive Your Life Award is named for its first recipients, Dale and Rita Brown, and for the book by ACU alumnus Max Lucado, Outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make a Difference. The award recognizes all types of servant leadership exhibited by friends or alumni of the university.
— Wendy Kilmer
May 12, 2025
