Greenville College Announces 2013 Commencement Schedule and Speakers
Published: April 13, 2021
Greenville College will conduct its 121st commencement exercises on May 25 and 26. Master's degree, adult degree completion, and off-campus partnership students will be recognized on Saturday, May 25, at 2 p.m. Undergraduate students will be recognized on Sunday, May 26, at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday's ceremonies will feature speaker Lesley Burbridge, Greenville College alumna and senior vice president at Rogers & Cowan, a leading entertainment public relations and marketing agency.
The Greenville College choir will perform a concert at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday prior to the ivy cutting ceremony. Dr. Lesley Allen has been chosen by students to deliver Sunday's baccalaureate address at 11 a.m. All of the events scheduled for commencement weekend are open to the public with the exception of Sunday's breakfast reception for graduates and their families.
Saturday, May 25
11:30 a.m. Commencement luncheon - Armington Center
12:30 p.m. Open seating begins in the Crum Recreation Center, an un-air conditioned facility. Overflow seating is available in the Armington Center.
2:00 p.m. Master's degree, adult degree completion, and off-campus partnership students' commencement - Crum Recreation Center
4:30 p.m. Greenville College Choir concert - Whitlock Music Center
5:30 p.m. Ivy cutting ceremony - front lawn (ceremony will be moved to Crum Recreation Center in the event of inclement weather)
Sunday, May 26
8:00 a.m. Commencement breakfast reception open to parents, families, and graduating seniors - Joy House, corner of Spruce and College
11:00 a.m. Baccalaureate - Crum Recreation Center
12:00 p.m. Graduation luncheon - Armington Center
1:30 p.m. Open seating begins in the Crum Recreation Center, an un-air conditioned facility. Overflow seating is available in the Armington Center.
3:00 p.m. Traditional undergraduate commencement - Crum Recreation Center
Please visit www.greenville.edu/commencement for more details regarding the weekend's schedule, directions and accommodations.
Greenville College 2013 Commencement Speaker Lesley Burbridge
Since graduating from Greenville College in 1989, Lesley Burbridge has achieved a prominent career in public relations working on numerous film and television projects and representing top talent including music artists,
athletes, authors, producers, and other celebrities. She has directed publicity at Word Records in Nashville and is now a senior vice president at Los Angeles-based Rogers & Cowan, one of the largest entertainment PR firms in the world. The position opened up for her as a result of the nine years she devoted to building her own PR firm, L.A.B. Media.
As the head of the publicity department of Word/Epic Records for nearly eight years, Burbridge organized national publicity campaigns for some of the industry's top clients. She has been instrumental in securing editorial coverage in publications and television shows. Burbridge directed and strategically formed a mainstream focused publicity division of the label during her time at Word/Epic Records, which eventually launched her into forming her own company, L.A.B. Media, a multi-faceted independent publicity company developing broad publicity campaigns as well as key relationships for clients in numerous areas. With its roots mainly in family, faith-based and mainstream entertainment, she also has had a broad influence through her business in connecting clients with charitable organizations, international ministries, faith-based companies and marketing and corporate partnerships.
Since founding L.A.B. Media in 2000, Burbridge has personally established a roster of many top clients in the corporate & entertainment industries. In 2008, Rogers & Cowan, one of the world's largest and most respected mainstream entertainment publicity firms, acquired L.A.B. Media through their Los Angeles office, maintaining a presence in Nashville, TN, naming Burbridge a senior vice president and department head, to create, launch and oversee the company's new Family Entertainment & Faith-Based initiative, handling both mainstream and faith-based entertainment and diverse market publicity campaigns.
Dr. Lesley Allen to Deliver Baccalaureate Address
Baccalaureate is a farewell address in the form of a sermon delivered to the graduating class. Each year, Greenville College students select a faculty member to deliver the baccalaureate address. The class of 2013 selected Dr. Lesley Allen, assistant professor of English.
"I'm so honored that the senior class has invited me to speak. I've had the pleasure to know and teach so many of these seniors during their time at GC," said Allen."I can't wait to see what God has in store for them after graduation, but I know I will be tearing up when I hear the reading of their names!It will be an exciting and bittersweet time."
Allen earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in English from Emporia State University, and a Ph.D. in English from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This is her fifth year teaching at Greenville College.
Greenville College is a four-year accredited Christian liberal arts school with more than 1,500 traditional undergraduate, graduate, and adult degree completion students. Founded in 1892 and affiliated with the Free Methodist Church, the college is located in Greenville, Illinois, 45 miles east of St. Louis.
