More than 2,700 Texas Tech students, including 150 from the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, received diplomas at the university's commencement ceremonies on Saturday (Dec. 16) at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock.

During the event outstanding students carried banners representing their respective colleges. William Dodge, a plant and soil science major from Lubbock, represented CASNR. Administrators selected the banner bearers based on all-around achievement. The highest-ranking fall graduates from CASNR were Dodge and Brooklyn Pettigrew, an animal science major from Columbia City, Indiana.

Graduation recipients from the individual departments and majors included:
• Agribusiness, 3
• Agricultural & Applied Economics, 24
• Agricultural & Applied Economics/General Business, 1
• Agricultural Communications, 18
• Animal Science, 43
• Conservation Law Enforcement, 2
• Interdisciplinary Agriculture, 15
• Natural Resources Management, 26
• Plant and Soil Science, 18

Texas Tech alumnus Abner Euresti served as speaker for the December commencement exercises. "To say I am honored to be the speaker at Texas Tech's commencement is an understatement," Euresti said. "I think I accepted before Dr. Schovanec was even through asking me."

Euresti, who servers as Lubbock's KCBD News Channel 11 anchor and managing editor, earned his bachelor's degree in telecommunications in 1974, at a time when the enrollment number of Hispanic students hovered around two percent. Texas Tech met the enrollment criteria to be a Hispanic Serving Institution in 2017, because 27.8 percent of the university's undergraduate student body is Hispanic.

In his 43 years on Lubbock's airwaves, Euresti received numerous awards for excellence in reporting. He also is an advocate for education, spending a great deal of time speaking to area youth, particularly for programs that target at-risk students.

CONTACT: Steven Fraze, Interim Dean, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2808 or steven.fraze@ttu.edu

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