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Commencement Programs
Welcome to the Commencement Programs collection.
Please click the image thumbnail below to see all available programs in the collection.
Florida Junior College held its first Commencement on Friday May 3, 1968. Almost 150 gray-gowned students accepted their diplomas from President J. Bruce Wilson in Jacksonville’s Civic Auditorium while the exhortations of the speaker, Florida Atlantic University President Dr. Kenneth Williams, still rang in their ears: “Each of you has ability, differing in kind and degree. Will you use it in dedication to making the world a better place, or will you allow it to become dissipated?”
Every year since, FSCJ has gathered to celebrate its graduates. Occasionally these celebrations pull double-duty as presidential inaugurations, as with Benjamin Wygal in 1971; frequently they feature prominent speakers such as NASA’s Dr. Wernher von Braun (1974), CBS’s Charles Kuralt (1975), actress Pearl Bailey (1978), journalist Carl Bernstein (1979), Assistant Secretary of State Harold Saunders (1981), Florida governor Farris Bryant (1982), Florida House Speaker John Thrasher (1999), and Florida Attorney General (and later Governor and US House Representative) Charlie Crist (2005). After the College celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1991, its newly-minted Alma Mater – written by employee Carole Varney - became a regular feature at each ceremony, annually extolling students to move toward the “high-held goals, within our sights.”
In 1986, the College began hosting separate award ceremonies for graduates of the Adult Basic Education and its High School commencement. The programs for these events can be found in the Adult Education collection https://fscj.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fscj:AdultEducation
This collection represents programs from most, but not all, of the Commencements hosted by FSCJ between 1968 and the current year. If you have information regarding existing copies of programs not represented here, please contact Jennifer Grey at jennifer.grey@fscj.edu.
