{"id":12343,"date":"2026-05-07T10:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/?p=12343"},"modified":"2026-05-07T10:05:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:05:44","slug":"mowest-honors-graduates-with-two-ceremonies-may-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/2026\/05\/07\/mowest-honors-graduates-with-two-ceremonies-may-9\/","title":{"rendered":"MoWest honors graduates with two ceremonies May 9\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">May 7, 2026\u2013Missouri Western State University will honor more than 400 graduates at Spring Commencement Ceremonies on Saturday, May 9 in the MWSU Fieldhouse in the M.O. Looney Complex. At 11 a.m., graduates from the College of Science and Health will receive their degrees. Graduates from the Division of Academic Affairs, College of Business and Professional Studies, and College of Liberal Arts will participate in the 3 p.m. ceremony. Both ceremonies will be live streamed on the MIAA Network, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.themiaanetwork.com\/mwsugriffons\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">themiaanetwork.com\/mwsugriffons\/<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A total of 326 undergraduate students and 86 graduate students have completed their degree requirements this semester. They hail from 24 states and three foreign countries.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_12348\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12348\" class=\"wp-image-12348 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/05\/McMillin-Gentry-Mace.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/05\/McMillin-Gentry-Mace-200x67.png 200w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/05\/McMillin-Gentry-Mace-310x103.png 310w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/05\/McMillin-Gentry-Mace-400x133.png 400w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/05\/McMillin-Gentry-Mace.png 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-12348\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leslie McMillin &#8217;00, Dein Gentry &#8217;26, Allaina Mace &#8217;26<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The featured speaker at both commencement ceremonies will be Leslie McMillin, a 2000 graduate of MoWest. McMillin is currently Director, Payments Specialist in Agribusiness at FNBO in Kansas City.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Graduating students will also speak at both ceremonies. The 11 a.m. speaker will be Dein Gentry, a musical arts major from Springfield, Missouri. The 3 p.m. speaker will be Allaina Mace, a psychology major from St. Joseph.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A brief reception will follow the ceremony in the Looney practice gym, sponsored by the Missouri Western Alumni Association.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition to the commencement ceremonies, graduates in two health care professions will participate in pinning ceremonies where they will receive pins symbolic of their training and new careers:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Respiratory Therapy Pinning Ceremony<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">8 a.m. Saturday, May 9, Kemper Recital Hall, Spratt Hall room 101<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Nursing Pinning Ceremony<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">8:30 a.m. Saturday, May 9, Fulkerson Center<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Missouri Western State University is a student-centered learning community preparing individuals for lives of excellence through applied learning. MoWest is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit <\/span><\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">missouriwestern.edu<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May 7, 2026\u2013Missouri Western State University will honor more than 400 graduates at Spring Commencement Ceremonies on Saturday, May 9 in the MWSU Fieldhouse in the M.O. Looney Complex. At 11 a.m., graduates from the College of Science and Health will receive their degrees. Graduates from the Division of Academic Affairs, College of Business and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,48],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12343"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12343"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12351,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12343\/revisions\/12351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}