District Attorney Mark A. Dupree Sr. will deliver the keynote speech at the Grantham University commencement ceremony at 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3, at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, 1601 Broadway Blvd., Kansas City, Missouri.
Hundreds of students are expected to gather for the first time to celebrate their degrees from the online university.
“We are pleased to have such a distinguished member of our community to deliver our keynote,” said Anthony R. Petroy, D.M., Grantham University provost and interim president, in a news release. “His service to the citizens of Wyandotte County and involvement in the community, both as district attorney and as a senior pastor, has proven Mark to be an effective and charismatic leader with valuable advice to impart to our graduates.”
Grantham University has 1,709 graduates in the 2019 class, with graduates from all 50 states and from Canada, Germany, India, Italy and Singapore.
The youngest graduate is 19 and the oldest is 80, according to a spokesman. Sixty-one percent of the graduates are in the military, and 78 percent are the first generation in their family to complete college. Fifty-five percent of the graduates are minority.
“I am truly honored to be asked to deliver the commencement address at Grantham University’s graduation ceremony,” Dupree said in a news release. “I wholeheartedly believe in the university’s mission of making education both accessible and affordable. The university places the rewards of education in the hands of those willing to work hard to attain knowledge that can never be taken away, thereby opening up a world of possibilities. Grantham has never wavered in this commitment to students and the graduation ceremony will be a testament to that charge.”