Former NFL Player Will Speak at Kente Ceremony

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Former San Francisco 49ers player and Baylor graduate Tyrone Smith will be the keynote speaker at the fifth annual Kente Ceremony. The achievements of the 2010 graduates will be recognized at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 24, in Tidwell Bible Building.
Smith is a youth minister of the Church Without Walls in Houston and co-founder of First and Goal, Inc., an organization that offers positive influences and positive role models to today's youth.
Eighty undergraduate and graduate students will be presented in the ceremony with gifts and graduation stoles made of Kente cloth. Dr. Kevin Jackson, vice president of student life, and Dr. Elizabeth Palacios, dean of student development, will make the presentations.
The traditional Kente cloth is a form of fabric among the Ashanti people of Ghana, Africa. Strips of cloth measure about four inches wide and are sewn together into larger pieces of cloths. Cloths come in various colors and designs. Kente cloth is worn during important social and religious occasions. These pieces of fabric represent history, philosophy, ethics, oral literature, moral values, social code of conduct, religious beliefs, political thought and aesthetic principles.
The ceremony will be in the Miller Chapel of Tidwell Bible Building, 1311 Fifth St., Waco.
The ceremony, presented by the Department of Multicultural Affairs, is to encourage students and graduates of all racial and ethnic backgrounds to reach their potential. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will be held after the ceremony for friends and family of the 2010 graduating class.
For more information, contact Kelley Kimple, 254-710-6946, or Pearl Beverly, 254-710-4466.
by Colton Wright, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805