“Chase Your Passion”: A&T Celebrates Spring 2025 Graduates

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (May 10, 2025) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s newest graduates are preparing to forge distinctive paths, each punctuated by personal achievements. As these Aggies leave this chapter behind and step confidently into the next, they are expected to lead with integrity, strive for excellence, serve with purpose and uplift those around them.

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“These values are not confined to you during your time here,” said Chancellor James R. Martin II, presiding over his first spring commencement ceremonies for the university. “They are the compass that will guide you throughout your life, your whole journey.”

More than 1,600 undergraduate, more than 200 master’s and more than 20 doctoral students – as well as 25 students from the Joint Programs in Social Work with the University of North Carolina-Greensboro – became members of N.C. A&T’s spring Class of 2025 in commencement ceremonies Friday, May 9, and Saturday, May 10, in First Horizon Coliseum at the Greensboro Complex.

For the entire academic year, A&T produced more than 3,400 graduates, though graduation numbers for the spring will not be finalized until August. Over the past decade, A&T’s graduation numbers have risen by an astounding 82%.

Among this spring’s new graduates are the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences’ (CAES) first two doctoral degree earners in agriculture and environmental sciences: William Oyom, who graduated from the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences with a concentration in food science, human nutrition and health, and Arjun Thapa, who graduated from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design with a concentration in sustainable agriculture and environmental sciences.

Also among the new grads are members of A&T’s inaugural cohort of the February One Scholars program, named for the day in 1960 when four A&T students energized a national sit-in movement by refusing to leave a segregated lunch counter in downtown Greensboro without being served. The College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS), the College of Education (COEd) and the John R. and Kathy R. Hairston College of Health and Human Sciences used a portion of philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s historic $45 million contribution to the university to establish the program four years ago.

Additionally, grads included members of the inaugural cohort (Cohort ’25) of the Defense Civilian Training Corps (DCTC). One of four universities selected to pilot the DCTC Scholars Program, A&T tapped 19 students representing diverse academic backgrounds — both STEM and non-STEM focused — for the program’s initial class launched in August 2023, integrating scholarships, a tailored curriculum and hands-on experience to help undergraduate students combine their passion for business, law, policy and STEM with real-world experiences that lead to impactful careers within the Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition mission.

Marking these commencement milestones were two pioneers in their own fields:

• Brad Holmes ’02, executive vice president and general manager of the National Football League’s Detroit Lions, who served as keynote speaker for the two baccalaureate student ceremonies Saturday. The morning ceremony was for CAES, COEd, College of Engineering and Hairston College graduates, while the afternoon ceremony was for CAHSS, Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics and College of Science and Technology graduates.
• Retired NASA astronaut Joan Higginbotham, one of the space agency’s most frequent participants in its space shuttle missions over her 30-year NASA career. Higginbotham addressed the Friday graduate commencement.

Holmes graduated cum laude from A&T with a B.S. in journalism and mass communications. A defensive tackle, he was a four-year letterman, two-year starter and 2001 captain for the Aggie football team, which won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and Historically Black College and University National Championship under legendary coach Bill Hayes. He is the son of Melvin Holmes ‘67, a Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman (1971-73).

“I wasn’t good enough to play in the NFL, but my former teammates, they are not surprised that I’m doing what I’m doing now,” said Holmes. “Why, you ask? Well, they remember me being in Cooper Hall talking about college football players in a completely different light.

“The reason why I’m sharing this with you is because: chase your passion. Chase your passion. After graduating, I tried to pursue my dream in a career in the NFL, so I applied for a scouting internship. The NFL told me no,” he said. “I could give you all the long details of my journey … becoming a scouting intern when the other scouting interns did not look like me, and I had to be twice as good. Look, my story’s well-documented.”

Starting as a public relations intern with the Los Angeles Rams, Holmes transitioned into scouting and spent 18 seasons (2003-20) in a variety of roles within the organization’s player personnel department. On Jan. 14, 2021, he joined the Lions where his combination of draft success and strategic free agent signings built a roster that achieved historic success for the team in 2023.

Detroit finished the season with a 12-5 record, tying the franchise record for the most wins in a single season. The team also clinched a division title for the first time in 30 years and appeared in their second-ever NFC Championship Game, their first since the 1991 season. Holmes was named Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA) NFL Executive of the Year for his work in 2023, becoming the first Black GM and first Detroit Lion to win the award.

Last season, the Lions fared even better, finishing with a 15-2 record, as Holmes won his second consecutive NFL Executive of the Year award.

Along with the foundation of his family, education and experience, Holmes credits prayer, patience and humility for his success. And “read as much as you can,” he said. “The power of books has had a major impact on my life.”

“I want you to think about this as you enter your next chapter,” he said. “What’s your attitude? Do you wake up thinking you have to do something, or do you wake up thinking I get to do something?”

“Are you consistent? Are you reliable, dependable? Do people have to worry about you showing up on time? Do people have to have to worry about you turning in your work on time?”

Holmes further advised graduates to focus on the quality of their production.

“Always remember: The shortcut may feel good in the short term, but life’s going to catch up to you,” he said.

“Be proud of where you come from. That blue and gold you bleed hits different. That statue of the Greensboro Four should mean something to you. Those bullet holes on the side of Scott Hall should mean something to you. That A/C window unit that I put up and duct-taped in Cooper Hall means something to me. It shaped me. When people disrespect Aggie Pride, that say, ‘So you went to AT&T?’ that strikes a nerve in me. It makes me cringe.

“A&T is where the real ones are made. Aggies are gritty. Not verbatim, but in light of W.E.B. Du Bois, a highly educated Aggie is dangerous. It’s scary in a great way. You’ll be dangerously successful. And that fires me up because you are the future.”

Retired NASA astronaut Higginbotham referenced the university’s connection to the space program through pioneer Ronald E. McNair ’71, Ph.D., who was one of NASA’s first three Black astronauts and died aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

“North Carolina A&T has long been a beacon of excellence, leadership and legacy,” she said as part of her Friday evening graduate commencement address. “This university has shaped an astronaut and numerous engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, artists, educators – trailblazers in every field. And today, graduates, you join their ranks.”

An electrical engineer, Higginbotham flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery in December 2006 to become the third African American woman to travel into space. She began her career at NASA in 1987 as an aerospace technologist at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where she worked her way through numerous promotions and actively participated in 53 space shuttle launches, logging more than 308 hours in space before retiring in 2007. She went on to hold several high-level corporate positions before launching her own aerospace consulting firm, Joan Higginbotham Ad Astra LLC, in April 2022.

Good enough is never enough when excellence is the goal, Higginbotham said, and offered graduates this advice as they face their next endeavors:

• “Preparation is power. … You cannot fake your way into excellence.”
• “Never underestimate the power of your perspective. … You bring something no one else can replicate.”
• “Say yes to the stretch. … Do not let self-doubt or fear cheat you out of who you are meant to be.”

Higginbotham received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIU-C), an M.S. in management and an M.S. in space systems from Florida Institute of Technology, an honorary Doctor of Aerospace Science from SIU-C and an honorary Doctor of Humanities from the University of New Orleans. Widely recognized for her accomplishments in space exploration, she is a recipient of the National Space Medal, the Adler Planetarium Women in Space Award and NASA Exceptional Service Medal, and was named one of Savoy Magazine’s Top Influential Women in Corporate America and one of Essence magazine’s Top 50 Women, among other accolades.

Arriving at NASA two weeks after receiving her electrical engineering degree, Higginbotham said was just excited to have a job. She never imagined she would fly aboard STS-116 Space Shuttle Discovery help to build the International Space Station.

“It was an incredible journey. But the journey began long before liftoff. It began with an education and doing the hard work when no one was watching,” she said. “It began with being willing to be the only woman in the room and sometimes the only person of color – not letting that stop me (but) instead using that to fuel me. And it began with turning what could have held me back into the very thing that propelled me forward.

“Graduates, today is your launch day.”