ACTC Graduation 2014 Will Set Record

Ashland Community and Technical College will recognize a record number of 636 students at the Graduation Ceremony Saturday on Friday, May 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Paramount Arts Center.

The students to be honored are August and December 2013 graduates, and May and Summer 2014 graduation candidates. Many have earned more than one degree, diploma or certificate, and more than 1,700 credentials will be awarded.

ACTC alumnus Dr. Henderson Dwayne McGinnis will be the keynote speaker, and Logan J. Evans will be the graduating student speaker. Dr. McGinnis will also receive the Distinguished Alumnus Award.

The Boyd County High School Navy JROTC, under the direction of Mater Chief James Sandlin, will be the color guard, and ACTC Professor Robert Chaffins will sing the national anthem.

The Graduation Ceremony is free and open to the public.

Graduation Keynote Speaker

Henderson Dwayne McGinnis M.D. will be the keynote speaker at ACTCs Commencement Ceremony.

He is an Assistant Professor at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC and is Medical Director of AirCare Critical Care Transport Service. AirCare is part of an EMS network serving patients in North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina.

He practices emergency medicine and is an expert in Wilderness Medicine which focuses on medical problems and treatment in remote environments. He is on the Board of Directors of the Appalachian Center for Wilderness Medicine, established as a non-profit regional organization in 2007 and is believed to be the first to address wilderness medicine with a comprehensive but regional focus to serve the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee.

An Ashland area native, McGinnis graduated from Boyd County High School in 1985. He attended Ashland Community College, an ACTC predecessor, for a short time before joining the military.

After completing his service, he returned to ACTC to graduate in 1994 with an Associate in Applied Science Degree. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Kentucky in 1996 and graduated from Marshall Universitys Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in 2001.

He completed his Internship and Residency in Emergency Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital. He is affiliated with three hospitals in North Carolina, and he has contributed seven articles to medical journals. He is certified in Family Medicine by the American Board of Family Medicine and is a fellow in the American College of Emergency Physicians.

McGinnis credits the college with helping him on his way to a medical career, and he has fond memories of his instructors, particularly the late Opel Conley, a Professor of Anatomy and Physiology. When in the Ashland area, he has returned to ACTC to speak to students in a Health Science class that explores a variety of medical careers.

Graduation Student Speaker

Logan J. Evans will be the student speaker at the Graduation Ceremony May 9. He is graduating with an Associate in Science Degree with High Distinction.

An Ashland resident, he graduated from Raceland-Worthington High School in 2012. He started at ACTC to begin my education in a supportive atmosphere and also to be able to remain financially stable for these two years, he said.

At ACTC, he has been on the Deans List each semester. He served as a Supplemental Leader, helping other students with historically difficult courses, for three of his four semesters at ACTC, and he was the chemistry lab assistant during summer of 2013.

Evans has been accepted into the Summer 2014 UK PEPP II program for Pre-Medicine majors from rural KY counties. His participation in this exceptional program will afford him opportunities that will allow him to rise to the top of the UK medical school application pool, said Dr. Mary Catherine Flath, one of his instructors at ACTC.

He will transfer to the University of Kentucky in fall as a pre-med major, and his goal is to become a neurosurgeon. Ive been inspired by the story of Dr. Ben Carson, one of the top neurosurgeons in the world, who overcome many obstacles to rise to the top of his field, said Evans. I know I have a long road ahead, and Im ready to take the next step.

I am absolutely pleased with every aspect of my choice to attend ACTC, and I recommend this college to anyone interested in pursuing higher education, he concluded.