Embry-Riddle Commencement

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Air Force Brig. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins to Speak at Embry-Riddle Commencement

Prescott, Ariz., Dec. 8, 2005 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott campus will graduate 112 students in its Fall Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 17.

The commencement ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. in the Student Activity Center on the main campus. The public is invited to attend.

The graduating class is composed of students from across the United States and includes graduates from Mexico, Romania, Pakistan, Nepal, and Canada.

Embry-Riddle’s graduation ceremony also includes the commissioning of Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) graduates as second lieutenants into the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps.

Brig. Gen. Ronnie D. Hawkins Jr., commander of the U.S. Air Force Officer Accession and Training Schools at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, will deliver the commencement address.

Hawkins is the single point manager for approximately 17,000 students in the Air Force ROTC and 2,500 students in the Officer Training School. He controls nearly 80 percent of line, chaplain, judge advocate, nurse, medical service, and biomedical science officer production for the Air Force. He also oversees the Air Force Junior ROTC program at more than 744 locations with more than 108,000 students.

Prior to his current assignment, Gen. Hawkins was the director of Communications Operations for the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Installations and Logistics at U.S. Air Force Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Gen. Hawkins received his commission as a distinguished graduate of the ROTC program at Angelo State University, San Angelo, Texas, in 1977. In 1981, he was a distinguished graduate of the Squadron Officer School at Maxwell AFB. He received his Master of Science in management and human relations at Abilene Christian University, Texas, in 1985. Further, he was a distinguished graduate of the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell AFB in 1993. Gen. Hawkins received a Master of Science in national resource strategy from Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C.

Gen. Hawkins is the recipient of several major awards and decorations, including the Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

Embry-Riddle, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates more than 30,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Extended Campus at more than 130 teaching centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East, and through distance learning.