HIGH POINT, N.C., Aug. 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- High Point University will have many reasons to celebrate in 2024, which will mark HPU’s 100th anniversary, including accomplished Commencement speakers. HPU announces two Commencement speakers and two ceremonies – one for undergraduate students and one for graduate students.
The speakers will be as follows:
- Glenn Stearns, an internationally known businessman and star of Discovery Channel's “Undercover Billionaire,” will deliver HPU's Commencement address for undergraduate students on May 4, 2024. Stearns is the founder and CEO of mortgage banker Kind Lending and host of the “Grit Happens” podcast. His life story is shared in a new book, “Integrity: My Slow and Painful Journey to Success.”
- Dr. Vincent Price, president of Duke University, will provide HPU’s Commencement address to graduate students on May 2, 2024. Dr. Price is the 10th President of Duke University, where he is also Walter Hines Page Professor of Public Policy and Political Science in the Sanford School of Public Policy and Trinity College of Arts and Sciences.
“Our graduates will benefit from the tremendous success and insights of Glenn Stearns and Vincent Price,” says HPU President Nido Qubein. “Glenn Stearns’ life as a successful entrepreneur demonstrates how hard work, determination and grit can turn a vision for the American Dream into reality. President Price has made an extraordinary impact in higher education and led some of the most prestigious universities in the nation. For our graduates, the inspiring journeys of these influential leaders will shine the light on the impact that they, too, can achieve in their respective fields.”
Stearns and Price join an extraordinary lineup of HPU Commencement Speakers including Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, an accomplished woman entrepreneur, former U.S. Ambassador to Finland and the first woman to chair the American Red Cross; Daniel Lubetzky, founder of KIND Snacks; Cynt Marshall, CEO of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and HPU Sports Executive in Residence; Dr. Michio Kaku, physicist and co-founder of String Field Theory; Wolf Blitzer, lead political anchor at CNN; the 66th Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; broadcast legend Tom Brokaw; Gen. Colin Powell, former secretary of state, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and national security advisor; former First Lady Laura Bush; Josh Groban, internationally acclaimed singer, songwriter and actor; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple and HPU’s Innovator in Residence; Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan; NASA Astronaut Dr. Buzz Aldrin; and Muhtar Kent, CEO of the Coca-Cola Company.
About Glenn Stearns:
Motivated by stories of people who took risks and achieved their grandest ambitions, Stearns overcame obstacles to become the first person in his family to attend college. After earning his degree in economics, he moved to California to search for new opportunities. Within 10 years, Stearns started Stearns Lending LLC as well as a settlement company, Carriage Escrow. Stearns Lending became one of the nation’s largest privately held mortgage companies. Its wholesale lending division became America’s No. 1 lender and helped more than a million families achieve homeownership. Carriage Escrow soon became the nation’s largest HUD contractor. Stearns also founded Anivive Life Science, TriVerify, TriMavin, United House Services and Mortgage Services Providers Holdings.
In 2019, Stearns starred in the Discovery Channel show “Undercover Billionaire,” centered around starting over again and building a business from the ground floor. It featured the importance of accountability, perseverance and team building. The company he built on the show, Underdog BBQ, operates where the show took place in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Other accomplishments:
- Stearns’ visionary success earned him Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2002.
- Stearns was inducted into The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans.
- He became the youngest member elected to the Horatio Alger Association’s board of directors in 2013.
- Stearns and his wife, Mindy, have been honored for their philanthropy and dedication to community service with Muhammed Ali’s Parkinson Foundation’s Couple of the Year Award, Starkey Hearing Foundation’s American Couple of the Year, One OC’s Giving is Living Award and Orangewood Children’s Foundation’s Golden Heart Award.
About Vincent Price:
A leading global expert on public opinion, social influence and political communication, President Price came to Duke in 2017.
Prior to coming to Duke, Price served as Provost of the University of Pennsylvania and was the Steven H. Chaffee Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication and Professor of Political Science in the School of Arts and Sciences. As Provost and chief academic officer, he advanced initiatives to diversify the faculty and expand interdisciplinary research; guided the development of new forms of teaching and learning, both in the classroom and in the digital world; expanded the university’s global presence, including the launch of the Penn Wharton Center in Beijing; and enhanced arts and culture on campus, shepherding the creation of the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation. He led Penn’s role as one of the first partners with Coursera, the online open learning platform, and served as chair of Coursera’s University Advisory Board. He came to Penn in 1998 after 11 years at the University of Michigan, where he was chair of the Department of Communication Studies and a faculty associate of the Center for Political Studies.
President Price’s “Public Opinion” (Sage, 1992) has been published in six languages and taught in courses around the world. His work has been widely cited on such topics as the impact of political polls, the effects of TV news coverage and the factors that shape public opinion. His research, funded by grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts, National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, has explored the role of online discussion in shaping public knowledge and opinion. The former editor-in-chief of Public Opinion Quarterly, the leading journal of public opinion research, Price has held visiting appointments at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, the University of Amsterdam and has lectured widely at universities around the world.
A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Price earned his Ph.D. (1987) and M.A. (1985) in Communication from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude (1979) in English from the University Honors Program at Santa Clara University. Born and raised in Southern California, Price and his wife Annette are the proud parents of two adult children. In their free time, they can often be found walking their doodles, Cricket and Marlowe, on the Al Buehler Trail in Duke Forest.
Commencements are private events for HPU graduates and their families and will stream live at www.highpoint.edu/live.
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