Pharmaceutical CEO to speak at commencement

Southeast Missouri State University will confer 1,333 degrees Saturday during spring commencement exercises.

The exercises are scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Show Me Center, and the commencement address will be given by Gary Downing, Southeast alumnus and chief executive officer of Insight Pharmaceuticals, producer of nationally-known brands such as Anacin pain reliever and Sucrets sore throat lozenges.

Of the candidates for graduation, 1,048 are undergraduates, 283 are graduate and specialist candidates and two are cooperative doctoral students. While many of the candidates took the traditional path toward a Southeast degree, Teresa Crain of Cape Girardeau entered Southeast as a freshman in the fall of 1969 and took a 39-year detour in earning her degree in social work.

"I left school in 1969 to have a baby," Crain said. "In those days, you didn't go to school while carrying a child."

Crain said once she left college, she never really thought of going back for her degree.

"I had been an insurance broker in Denver," she said. "But when I came back to Cape, the state of the economy demanded that you have a degree if you wanted a good job. I enrolled again at Southeast in 2008."

Crain said once she graduates she will have a job at Gibson Recover Center Inc., and may start earning her master's degree at the University of Missouri. Getting her bachelor's degree wasn't always easy, but overall it was a fun experience.

"I have a lot of 20-year-old friends," she said.

Another candidate is Christine Paige, who will receive her master's in nutrition and exercise science.

Paige, of Ste. Genevieve, Mo., said she already has degree-related jobs in Cape Girardeau and Ste. Genevieve, working for the Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department and at the Ste. Genevieve Community Center.

Even with her busy schedule, she is aware she will have to start paying off her student loans soon.

"For my undergraduate years, it was half-scholarship and half-loans," she said. "Paying the loans back was deferred while I was in the graduate program, but I owe about $20,000."

A graduate who won't have to worry about paying back loans is Cheyenne Gipson, who came to Southeast from a junior college on a softball scholarship.

"I came to Southeast from Northeast Oklahoma A & M junior college," said Gipson, of Skiatook, Okla. "The scholarship covered tuition, books and part of my housing."

Gipson will be graduating with a degree in technology management, sustainable energy systems management option. She is among the first group to graduate from Southeast with the degree.

"Everything about the degree is new," she said. "But what I studied covered the processes of mechanical engineers and electrical engineers."

Gipson said she will return to Oklahoma after she receives her degree, but she has no job waiting for her.

"Part of the problem is looking for a renewable energy job in Oklahoma," she said. "Oil and gas are still the big ones there. But I'm open to going wherever a job will take me."

klewis@semissourian.com

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