Summer 2010 Commencement
LSU held its 272nd commencement exercise on Friday, August 6, conferring undergraduate, graduate and
postgraduate degrees for approximately 717 students. The main ceremony was held in
the Pete Maravich Assembly Center and Raising Cane's Founder and CEO Todd Graves delivered
the commencement address. In 14 short years, Graves has grown Raising Cane's Chicken
Fingers from a single restaurant near the north gates of LSU to more than 90 locations
in 14 states. Raising Cane's now ranks as of one of the fastest growing privately-owned
companies in the United States. As an active community partner, Graves and Raising
Cane's have given more than 25 percent of the restaurant's profit back to the communities
where Raising Cane's restaurants operate.
Graves told the class about how only 16 years ago, he was sitting in the same spot
they are today. "You're the class of 2010. That's a monumental year," he said. "You
are the class of the future - you are our future - and to top that, you're graduating
on LSU's 150th anniversary. It really is a special time for you to be graduating."
This year marks LSU's 150th, or sesquicentennial, anniversary. To mark this momentous occasion, LSU planned several sesquicentennial flourishes for the 2010 graduates. Each graduate received a commemorative diploma reminiscent of the eight diplomas issued at the university's first commencement ceremony in 1869. The masthead and verbiage of the original diploma were preserved in this commemorative edition.
The August 2010 graduating class represents 43 Louisiana parishes, 35 U.S. states and 37 foreign countries. Women made up 50.35 percent of the graduates and men made up 49.65 percent. The oldest graduate is 63 and two graduates were the youngest at 20.
During the ceremony, Capt. Michael C. Shaw, assistant professor of military science, recognized LSU's newly commissioned Army ROTC cadets, Christopher Entzminger of Columbia, S.C., and Jean-Claude Jubert of Gretna. The two were commissioned during a special ceremony on Thursday, Aug. 5 at the Hill Memorial Library, where Lt. Col. John Wright, LSU's Army ROTC commander, was the guest speaker for the ceremony.
Both of the graduates are from the Army ROTC. 2nd Lt. Entzminger received a Bachelor
of Science degree in construction management from the College of Engineering. Entzminger's
first duty station is with the HSC 769th Engineering Battalion in Baton Rouge.
The College of Engineering awarded 35 bachelor of science degrees at the ceremony.
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Article by Mimi LaValle for the College of Engineering, 225-578-5706, mlavall@lsu.edu