Dec. 11, 2003

An estimated 2,687 students will receive degrees during Commencement ceremonies at North Carolina State University on Wednesday, Dec. 17. Following are short profiles of some of those students. The students’ stories could add to your coverage of graduation activities or provide material for an interesting feature story.

‘Skywalker’ Soars Again by Earning NC State Degree
Thirty years after he burst on the college basketball scene and popularized the alley-oop, David Thompson is adding the ultimate slam dunk to his NC State career – his college degree.

Thompson, the three-time All-American and two-time national player of the year who led the Wolfpack to the 1974 NCAA Championship, will receive his degree in sociology after completing his course requirements this past summer.

“This completes the goals I set when I came to NC State and the promise I made to my mom that I would get my degree,” Thompson said. “When I came to NC State I wanted to win a national championship and get my degree. Thank God both happened, even though it took some time. I’m just proud to be an NC State graduate – finally.”

When Thompson left NC State following his senior year in 1975, he was seven credit hours shy of graduating. Participating in the 1973 World University Games and playing in foreign exhibition tours prevented him from earning those credits during the summers while he was a student. He intended to finish the summer following his senior season, but the Denver Nuggets wanted him to get a jump on his professional career by working out with the team. Following his professional career, his involvement with the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets delayed his return for his degree once more. But when the Hornets left Charlotte for New Orleans last year, Thompson used the time he now had to make arrangements to complete his degree work.

In a way, the timing was perfect. Thompson is sharing his own graduation with his daughter Erika, who is receiving her degree in arts applications. In fact, Erika Thompson became a motivating factor in prompting her father to finish his course work.

“With my daughter finishing her degree work this summer, I thought it would be a good idea if we both graduated at the same time,” Thompson said. “We’re both very competitive, and I wanted to get my degree before she did, which I did. I finished the first session of summer school, and she finished the second.”

NOTE TO EDITORS: David Thompson is not walking in the main graduation ceremony at the RBC Center but is participating in the Department of Sociology’s graduation exercises at 11:30 a.m. in room 3400 of Nelson Hall. A reception for Thompson hosted by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. at Reynolds Coliseum prior to the NC State women’s basketball game against Florida A&M. The reception is by invitation only, but Thompson is available to conduct media interviews at the event. Media interested in attending should contact Suzanne Jacovec in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at 919/513-1829. Thompson will also be recognized at halftime of the game.

Graduation Ranks Among Top Honors for Record-Setting QB Rivers
When NC State quarterback Philip Rivers had his No. 17 jersey retired prior to his final home game in late November, he donned a graduation cap and tassel for the ceremony. Perhaps the gesture was to show that earning his degree ranks right up there with all the athletic accolades Rivers has amassed in his four years as the Wolfpack’s record-setting signal caller.

Before he and his Wolfpack teammates depart for a Tangerine Bowl date with Kansas on Dec. 22 in Orlando, Fla., in what will mark the end of his storied collegiate career, Rivers will participate in NC State’s graduation exercises at the RBC Center and receive his bachelor’s degree in business management.

“It ranks up there high,” Rivers says of earning his degree. “While you don’t have a goal to have your jersey retired, to me that ranks first as far as an honor above any other. Then to be able to graduate and say you finished, as far as where it ranks, all of them are important and mean a lot.”

Rivers was a unanimous choice for this season’s ACC Player-of-the-Year Award and leaves NC State as one of the most prolific passers in college football history. He is the ACC career leader and ranks second in the NCAA record books in total offense (13,087) and passing yards (13,009). He is a finalist for the 2003 Walter Camp Player-of-the-Year Award and the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award.

“I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of success and honors come my way, and I owe a lot of people a lot of thanks for that,” Rivers said. “Graduating means a lot. It’s certainly something that I’ve been striving toward all along. To be able to see the end and get it done along with success I’ve been able to have in football makes it even better.”

Student Speaker’s Co-op Work Narrows Career Focus
Vic O’Janpa will receive his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, but it took a cooperative work opportunity with Choate Construction Co. to narrow down exactly what he wants to do in the future.

The answer: Get a master’s degree and become a project manager with a large commercial construction company.

O’Janpa started his work experience as an assistant project manager for a new spa in Pinehurst. After that, he moved to the firm’s main office and did work as an estimator coordinating bids for jobs, and has served as lead estimator on a few jobs.

Choate was impressed enough with O’Janpa to have him work part time after the co-op ended.

“My experience with Choate has led me to realize that I want to be involved in construction rather than design,” he says.

So O’Janpa, who will serve as the Commencement student speaker, will urge his fellow graduates to “go out and show the world what we can do.” And then he’ll begin his second NC State degree program to attain a master’s in construction engineering and management before forging his way in the world of constructing buildings.

O’Janpa is the son of John and Rhonda O’Janpa of Hampstead. He can be reached at 919/ 233-1792.

Design Student Looks to Continue to Solve Real-World Problems
Participating on an urban design assistance team made Jessica Beil Hindman feel like a kid again, but the experience involved a lot more than just child’s play. Hindman, who is receiving her master’s degree in architecture, was far and away the youngest member of a team of about a dozen seasoned design professionals who spent a week working on a downtown revitalization project in the riverfront town of Kennewick, Wash., this fall. Hindman’s involvement on the project marked the first time a student has been a full-time member of an urban design assistance team.

“Here at the College of Design I’m one of the older students, and I can draw on a lot of different experiences,” Hindman says. “But with the team, I was by far the least experienced person there, and my experiences paled in comparison to the other team members. I felt a little bit of pressure, but everyone on the team made it easy for me to contribute. To some of the team members I’m sure it was a relief, because I was that kid who was willing to do whatever was needed to get the job done.”

The team spent a week in Kennewick, Wash., studying and making recommendations for a downtown riverfront revitalization project. The team’s goal was to devise a plan that would allow for development of land along the banks of the Columbia River that has long been buffered from the town by a series of levees designed to control flooding. The team recommended lowering and in some cases breaching the levees to reclaim the waterfront property and reconnect it to the town. Part of Hindman’s role in the project involved assessing the community’s transportation system and roadways and how that network fit into the overall revitalization efforts.

As part of her experience at NC State, Hindman also spent a summer in Prague to study urban design. Following graduation, Hindman will begin work with Bizios Architect, a residential architecture firm in Durham, N.C.

Hindman is the daughter of Elizabeth Beil and Matt Schulte of Ellicott City, Md. She can be reached at 919/656-8789.

Student Ties Degrees Together to Prepare for Career in Writing
Cetty Abraham loves writing and studying biology.

So it’s no wonder that the native Canadian chose to major in both disciplines at NC State.

During her NC State career, Abraham worked as a staff writer for the student newspaper –Technician – and had the opportunity to study the effects of thrips, or insects that destroy crops like tobacco and tomato, on plants sprayed with a chemical that stimulated resistance to pests.

In her final semester, though, Abraham worked both of her academic passions into one neat package: an internship with the NC State News Services office.

During the semester, Abraham wrote about everything from this year’s pumpkin yields to the complexities of cellulose synthesis in cotton plants.

The work convinced Abraham to make science writing a career. She’s currently looking for a writing job – with hopes of discovering one that includes science writing – and is investigating master’s degree programs in science communication.

Abraham has also been invited to speak at the English department’s commencement ceremony, to be held after the main commencement exercise.

Abraham is the daughter of Almaz Berhane of Morrisville. She can be reached at 919/215-2768.

Service to Community a Priority for Park Scholar
Jessica Orr has always been interested in giving back to the community. Orr’s spirit of volunteerism has been a major part of her experience at NC State.

In 2001, she served as the campus public relations coordinator for the Service Raleigh project and helped recruit students to participate in the event that provided approximately 10,000 combined hours of community service work to a variety of projects around town. She’s also tutored students at the local Salvation Army. One of her final assignments at NC State involved working with other students to design a sculpture that will be on display in a public park in the city of Knightdale.

For Orr, a recipient of the university’s prestigious Park Scholarship and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, volunteering is simply part of getting an education. “As a student it’s easy to focus solely on school work, but we are also here to learn how to be an effective citizen,” Orr says. “Taking part in service activities in the community helps me balance my obligations to school in a way that I can be an effective citizen, learn from those experiences and apply them to my education.”

Orr will receive undergraduate degrees in art and design and English.

She is the daughter of Mitch Orr and Martha Orr of Robbinsville, N.C. She can be reached at 919/821-0463.

A Drumbeat of Achievement in Natural Resources
Jason Locklear, a Lumbee Indian from Lumberton, will graduate from the College of Natural Resources with dual degrees – in pulp and paper science and chemistry – and a minor in environmental science. When he isn’t studying or working, he’s a drummer in the Southern Sun Native American Drum Group, performing across the state and nation. He trained for his chosen fields by working summers for Sonoco Products and International Paper, and by researching the pulping characteristics of nonwood and hardwood fibers.

“I get bored following a routine,” he says of his interest in the science and technology of pulp and paper. “When I got into the field, it really pushed me.”

Not that the enterprising young man needs pushing: Jason, who financed 100 percent of his education through work-study positions and internships, nevertheless found time to serve as co-founder and president of NC State’s chapter of Phi Sigma Nu, the Native American Honors Society, as a member of the Native American Student Organization, and as a member of the student chapter of the Technical Association for the Pulp and Paper Industry.

After graduation, he hopes to enter the process-engineer training program for the MeadWestVaco paper plant in Covington, Va.

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