740 Southeast students receive degrees

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill told 740 Southeast Missouri State University graduates at their fall commencement Saturday their degrees "should be a tool, not an anchor," for a bold approach to life while they take care to remember family and friends.

"For the last two decades of your lives, you had everything planned out," McCaskill said. "Now you are heading into completely uncharted waters where you may not even have a plan."

Having driven from St. Louis to the Show Me Center after heavy rains made flight inadvisable, the Kirkwood Democrat said: "Success is not what you own, it's loving what you do.

"You are not so wealthy if you have a pool in the backyard and you live on the lake, but you're counting the days till retirement. The world is a big place full of interesting things to do. A lot of you will wind up working in jobs that don't even exist yet."

Detailing her "Sweet Six" points of advice to the young, McCaskill said, "Don't let your degree get in the way, don't underestimate the power of confidence, take risks, reach out, treasure your family and work hard in keeping your oldest friends.

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill gives the commencement address during Southeast Missouri State University’s 2013 Fall Commencement on Saturday at the Show Me Center. (Adam Vogler)

"Failure is a good thing," she said, explaining she would not have been elected to the Senate in 2006 if her 2004 gubernatorial run had succeeded.

Addressing graduates' families, McCaskill said: "Your real rewards will come later as you watch them grow away from you and make their way in life.

"And miracle of miracles, down the road they will begin to listen to you again."

Among the grads gathering in the nearby recreation center for the ceremony, Vienna, Ill., native Zachary Elliott said he had attended Rend Lake College at Ina, Ill., for two years and SEMO for 3 1/2 to earn his bachelor's degree in athletic training, which he expects to apply at a clinic contracting to high schools.

"I feel very accomplished," Elliott said. "It's hard work, but I feel like it paid off."

Magna cum laude honoree Kaitlin McGrath of Cape Girardeau earned her bachelor's degree in communication disorders in 3 1/2 years, saying, "It was a pretty smooth ride going through.

"There was the occasional hard class with some of the higher-ups from my major," said McGrath, who finished with a cumulative grade-point average between 3.75 and 3.89 on a 4.0 system.

Ben Czarnecki, who played football and basketball at Fort Zumwalt West High School in O'Fallon, Mo., needed 4 1/2 years to get his bachelor's in physical education because he had suffered serious head, ankle and leg injuries in an October 2012 motorcycle accident.

Already working as an assistant basketball coach at his high school alma mater, Czarnecki said his most demanding courses were anatomy, kinesiology and the physiology of conditioning, although he enjoyed taking them because they were preparing him for his eventual profession.

"You've got to work hard," he said. "It doesn't come easy."

Amber Blissett-Shephard of Oran, Mo., spent five years working as a teller at Montgomery Bank in Sikeston, Mo., while earning her bachelor's in finance.

"It is tough, especially when you want to achieve high standards," Blissett-Shephard said after posing for photos with family members and friends. "It takes a lot of perseverance and effort."

After graduate Megan Statler had sung the national anthem and the SEMO Brass Quintet played a Christmas medley, the crowd heard greetings from the board of regents by Jay Knudtson of Cape Girardeau and opening remarks by university president Kenneth Dobbins, who said the class was joining more than 70,000 people who have earned degrees at the school since it opened in 1873.

The commencement program cited Dr. Michael Aide, chairman of the agriculture department, for winning the SEMO Alumni Association's Faculty Merit Award for excellence in teaching. Aide is past president of the Missouri Academy of Science and an adjunct professor in the soil and atmospheric sciences department at the University of Missouri-Columbia.