Tennessee Tech welcomes more than 1,000 graduates at fall 2024 commencement
Graduates celebrate during Tennessee Tech's fall 2024 morning commencement ceremony.
Tennessee Tech University celebrated more than 1,000 graduates today at its fall commencement
ceremonies, held at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the university’s Hooper Eblen Center.
The fall 2024 graduating class encompassed students from 74 counties throughout Tennessee,
21 states and 15 other countries – all with birth years ranging from 1951 to 2004.
Undergraduate degrees were awarded to students across 46 fields of study, while graduate
degrees were awarded to students representing 31 fields of study.
“This will always be your home,” said Tech President Phil Oldham in remarks to graduates.
“You belong to this community and campus. Through your dedication and service, you
have significantly contributed to its strength and spirit.”
During both the morning and afternoon ceremonies, Tech graduates heard video remarks
from Kelsey Hewitt, a Tech senior and current Student Government Association (SGA)
president; Tyler and Anna Dunn, Tech alumni and owners of “Soul Craft Coffee” in Cookeville;
and Ashraf Islam, the 2024 recipient of Tech’s Distinguished Alumnus Award and namesake
for the university’s new Ashraf Islam Engineering Building.
“The best gift that Tennessee Tech gave us was the skills and confidence to take a
risk and start a business here in Cookeville that has allowed us to stay close to
our alma mater and invest in this town we love so much,” said Anna Dunn in her remarks.
Tyler Dunn added words of wisdom for graduates gleaned from the couple’s own experiences
running a business, sharing that “good things take time, but they’re worth the wait,
challenges can be overcome when you are confident in your calling, and success is
all the more rewarding when you pull up others alongside you to share in life’s mountaintop
moments together.”
Islam, a 1968 Tech graduate who went on to become a highly successful transportation
infrastructure businessman and generous philanthropic leader, recalled his experience
coming to Tech from his native Bangladesh, saying “I arrived here with a heart full
of dreams and a mere $400 in my name.”
Islam credited “the warmth of this community and the dedication of the faculty at
Tennessee Tech” for providing him a foundation to succeed and challenged graduates
to “reach higher and dream bigger than those who came before you.”
Video of Tech’s morning commencement ceremony, which included the College of Agriculture
and Human Ecology, the College of Business, the College of Engineering and the College
of Fine Arts, can be viewed here.
Video of Tech’s afternoon ceremony which included the College of Arts and Sciences,
the College of Education & Human Sciences, the College of Interdisciplinary Studies
and the Whitson-Hester School of Nursing, can be viewed here.
Students from the College of Graduate Studies received degrees at both the morning
and afternoon ceremonies based on their field of study.
Tennessee Tech is ranked as a “Best National University” by U.S. News & World Report.
The university offers more than 225 programs of study, and Tech grads leave with the
least debt of all public universities in the state. In fact, based on total cost and
alumni earnings, Tech provides students with the highest return on investment for
any public university in Tennessee, according to PayScale. Find out more at www.tntech.edu.
