Associate Professor Kiwana McClung Delivers Powerful Commencement Address

Associate Professor Kiwana McClung was the Summer 2021 Commencement Speaker. McClung’s resonant message was a call to all to lift-up and serve others. McClung spoke of inspirational civil rights leaders and scientific Nobel Prize recipients who, like herself, are agents of service to their fellow human beings. Her personal narrative intertwined being the benefactor of tremendous gifts of mentorship and guidance and how years later she was able to reciprocate her mentor’s generosity as she taught and guided the academic success of her mentor’s son.

McClung’s record of service leadership and her speech are critical reminders that our invisible and visible acts of service are our humanity. Inspired by her record and ruminations, we should all “go out, give, and do good for others.”

McClung was honored with a Leadership Service Award from the UL Lafayette Foundation earlier this year. The Award recognizes a faculty member who combines service learning with classroom instruction to forge skills and knowledge that students can apply to community leadership opportunities. McClung was recognized in part for her projects that improve community and cultural resilience, but also for her invisible service of mentoring under-served design students.