Melissa Lucas’s degree at Northern Virginia Community College opened the door for further higher-education opportunities, including a Ph.D., and she will return to the college as commencement speaker for 2023.
The college on March 21 announced that Luca, currently a post-doctoral associate at the Yale School of Medicine, would headline its 57th commencement ceremonies, to be held on May 15 at EagleBank Arena on the campus of George Mason University.
“I am thrilled for this opportunity to return to my alma mater,” Lucas said. “I am so grateful for the foundation that was laid for me here.”
Lucas is a developmental and educational psychologist who recently earned her doctorate from the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development. After attending Northern Virginia Community College (where she earned an associate’s degree in social science), she moved on to Virginia Commonwealth University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
Commencement will honor those who earned degrees of completed certificate requirements in the summer and fall of 2022 as well as spring of 2023. Because of the size of the graduating class, the ceremony will be broken into two sections, one at 10 a.m. (for graduates with last names starting in the first half of the alphabet), the second at 3 p.m. (for those whose last names start in the second half).
The ceremonies also will be live-streamed and recorded for archiving on the college’s Website.
For full details, see the Website at https://www.nvcc.edu/commencement/.
