Make Sure You're Ready for Commencement By Marcus Akins Walking across that stage on a particular day in May is something we all dream when we start our collegiate career. No matter how long it took you to get to that point—4, 5, 6, 10 years, when that stage is in front of you all is see is that light at the end of it. BUT WAIT! Picture this—getting ready to hear your name over the loudspeaker, and all of a sudden…they skip your name. It seems like a nightmare, but it’s amazingly just become your reality. You can’t believe it. Before I graduated from BSU earlier this month, I refused to let this dream become MY reality. If you’re graduating soon, you should make sure this isn’t your reality either. Here’s just a little checklist to make sure you have completed before you even attempt to walk across that stage. 1) Make sure you’ve paid the remaining balance on your tuition! Seems trivial enough, but many don’t know. 2) Make sure you’ve completed (or are completing) ALL of your 120 credit hours. 3) Make sure you have actually APPLIED for graduation. (If you haven’t done this already, it’s more than likely too late) 4) Make sure you’ve completed ANY outstanding requirements that were mentioned in your graduation letter. (That includes that parking ticket you got Freshman year that you just refused to pay) 5) Make sure you have PASSED the English Proficiency Exam. (The one you put off for years) 6) Make sure you have communicated with the head of your department to make sure there aren’t any unseen classes you didn’t know you had to take. 7) Last but not least—PASS THE REST OF YOUR CLASSES. You’ve come too far to let up now! Well if you’ve completed these steps, you should be ready to hop, skip and jump across that proverbial stage. After that, just make sure you don’t fall. See you at our first BSU alumni meeting! Marcus Akins graduated from Bowie State University on Dec. 16, 2011 with a bachelor's degree in communications. | 
The thing I like most about BSU is the connections and relationships that I have made. Being an out of state student can be a challenge, and my fellow Bulldogs have become a part of my family.
Jennifer Dorsey began her dance training in Ellicott City, MD at Kinetics Dance Theatre. She then attended the Tisch School for the Arts at New York University where she received her B.F.A. in Dance Performance. 
Sherece West has risen far from her youth growing up in a public housing project in inner-city Baltimore. She is the president of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation in Little Rock, AK, a $150 million philanthropy founded by a former Arkansas governor.
