Celebrating PVAMU’s Fall Class of 2020

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – This coming Saturday, Prairie View A&M University’s (PVAMU) total alumni count will be brought to 77,419 Proud and Productive Panthers. Four-hundred and ninety-eight students will receive bachelor’s degrees, 107 students will receive master’s degrees, and ten students will receive doctorates at PVAMU’s Fall 2020 Virtual Commencement on Dec. 12 at 10 a.m.

Of those 615 students, nearly 36-percent are first-generation students, or students whose parents or legal guardians have not completed a bachelor’s degree. This means these graduates are the first persons in their families to attend a four-year university, and they chose to attend Prairie View A&M University.

“I am the rose that grew from the concrete,” said Plano, Texas native Tajaun M. Burton, who’s graduating this Saturday with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in political science.
“Growing up, I knew I wanted more for my family and myself. No one in my immediate family attended college, so I did not have a path to follow. I had to create my own,” he said.

“Being a first-generation college student means my parents’ sacrifices of coming to this country have started to pay off,” said Kassandra Jaimes-Hernandez. She is looking forward to earning her Bachelor of Arts in History and minor in Behavioral Science from PVAMU. “With my help, my younger brother will not have as much difficulty navigating through his college experience. Showing him, and my younger cousins, that hard work pays off is definitely rewarding, and it’s a wonderful feeling of achievement at the end of this marathon.”

“[Being the first person in my family to graduate] is a feeling that I can’t really explain. It hasn’t hit me yet because I’ve been in school for so long, but I definitely shed a few tears when I received my graduation approval letter,” said Lee Alston, a PVAMU student who is looking forward to receiving a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Management.

You can watch these students, as well as the other 612 students graduating, make history of their own this Saturday at www.pvamu.edu/commencement, PVAMU’s official YouTube page, www.youtube.com/pvamu, and official Facebook page, www.facebook.com/pvamu.

Khambrel Marshall, a member of the KPRC 2 Severe Weather Team and the host of “Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall,” a weekly program that explores news in Texas’ Southeast region, will serve as Commencement Speaker.

To view Burton’s, Jaimes-Hernandez’s, and Alston’s full stories, as well as other notable fall 2020 graduates, visit www.pvamu.edu/academicaffairs/commencement/graduates.

Visit www.pvamu.edu/commencement to learn more information about PVAMU’s Fall 2020 Virtual Commencement.

-PVAMU-