It almost seems as though the senior’s of 2013 stepped through the gold and blue doors of Aggie Land yesterday. With the younger generation often being called “misguided”, “scattered”, and “unpromising,” there is also another side to that coin in such that the young adults of this generation are expediently making leaps beyond those of their wildest dreams.
This is true of N.C. A&T’s 2013 senior class, which is changing the status quo and making on-lookers think twice about what they have done in the past four years.
Simon Van Booy could not have said it better, when he said “Language allows us to reach out to people, to touch them with our innermost fears, hopes, disappointments, and victories. To reach out to people we’ll never meet. It’s the greatest legacy you could ever leave. The history of how you felt.” That is the million-dollar question. What legacies will the Senior Class of 2013 leave after their commencement on May 11, 2013?
Alanna Goddard, senior journalism and mass communications major said, “I would like to leave a change on campus, and set a precedent for young women from the Caribbean that come after me, to be in a position to better the campus.”
That does not look like an order too tall to handle. While Goddard attended A&T through freshman year, A&T was ranked in the top tier of national universities in several categories in the 2013 U.S. News & World Report college rankings.
The national news magazine released its annual list of rankings in early September, and A&T earned top 25 honors amongst the nation’s top online programs in the area of information technology.
In the undergraduate category, A&T found itself ranked No. 11 among HBCUs, which was noted by BET. In the graduate category, A&T ranked No. 144 in engineering schools with the concentration of industrial/manufacturing engineering ranking No. 56.
Danae Thomas, senior English major stated, “ One of my proudest moments was winning the MEAC and seeing the Marching Band perform in the Macy’s Day Parade, it gives the school a legacy of greatness that I can say I experienced while here.”
That was not always the case as Kenneth Ruff, band director and A&T alumnus said, “We tried five years ago and we weren’t selected. Then about two years ago, we got a call saying we might want to submit again and (in April 2011) we found out we’d been invited.”
“Aggies work hard” that is one thing that can be said about N.C. A&T University’s Basketball team that defeated Morgan State 57-54 winning the MEAC and advancing to the NCAA tournament for the first time sine 1995 receiving coverage from outlets such as ESPN, Fox News, & YAHOO! Sports.
Lecturer Dawn Davis who also works in the admissions department leaves the senior class with some assurance and a few words, “The 2013 graduating class has to be the brightest, and most accomplished class to work with. They have also been the most goal oriented, focused and eager class by far, and I know they will be the next to make Aggie history.”
Never will they forget rubbing elbows with brilliant minds in classes, and watching A&T lead way into a golden age of camaraderie and Aggie Pride.
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- Deryck VANDERBILT-NICHOLSON, Contributor
