“The World is Here: A celebration of inclusive excellence”

Wednesday, May 1
5 – 7 p.m.
Holliday Alumni Center
Free, registration required

The first annual “The World is Here: A celebration of inclusive excellence” will be held on Wed., May 1 at 5 p.m. The event will be at the Holliday Alumni Center, which is located at 69 Hagood Ave, Charleston, SC.

The Citadel’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council will celebrate the 2019 graduates as well as the faculty, staff and ancillary staff who have contributed their time to The Citadel’s diversity and inclusion efforts this year.

Six graduates will be honored with six awards, recognizing those who have excelled in research, ambassadorship, service, global impact and community engagement. The faculty, staff and ancillary staff who were nominated by graduates for the Bulldog Inclusive Excellence Honor Roll will also be announced at the ceremony.

To register to attend the ceremony, click here.

Awards convocation

Thursday, May 2
10 a.m.
McAlister Field House
Free, open to the public

The Citadel will honor cadets and active duty students for their leadership, service and academic excellence on May 2 at 10 a.m. The annual awards convocation will be held in McAlister Field House.

More than 50 awards will be presented to cadets in recognition of their outstanding accomplishments in areas such as academic performance, leadership, outstanding performance in intramural competitions, and more.

Baccalaureate service and carillon concert

Thursday, May 2
2 p.m.
Summerall Chapel
Free, open to the public

The Citadel’s annual baccalaureate service will be held on May 2 at 2 p.m. in Summerall Chapel. The baccalaureate service is a multi-faith celebration honoring the graduating class.

Maj. Gen. Thomas S. Mullikin, SCSG (Ret.), will be the guest speaker. Mullikin, recently retired from command of the S.C. State Guard, is currently the chair of the South Carolina Floodwater Commission. Prior to his service in the S.C. Military Department, MG Mullikin served in the Judge Advocate General Corps, U.S. Army Reserve.

Mullikin has served as president of the State Guard Association of the United States. He is U.S. Army Master Fitness Trainer (graduate of the U.S. Army Physical Fitness School) and a self-defense instructor (black belt in Karate).

Additionally, Mullikin is on track to becoming the first human to have both climbed the world’s seven great summits and SCUBA dive all five of Earth’s oceans. He has already logged all the dives and, to date, climbed four of the seven great summits.

Citadel’s first ever class of nursing graduates celebrated in pinning ceremony

Thursday, May 2
3:30 p.m.
Buyer Auditorium, Mark Clark Hall
Free, open to the public

The first graduating class of nurses from The Citadel will be symbolically welcomed into their new profession on May 2 at 3:30 p.m. The Citadel’s inaugural pinning ceremony will be held in Buyer Auditorium in Mark Clark Hall.

20 evening undergraduate students and one cadet will be graduating from The Citadel’s nursing program this May. The Citadel offers cadets and veteran students a traditional four-year bachelor’s degree in nursing, while an evening completion program is offered for community students who have earned the required general education and prerequisite courses at another institution.

The Citadel offers the only evening bachelor of science in nursing program in the Lowcountry.

Military commissioning ceremonies

Friday, May 3
Army – 8 a.m. in McAlister Field House
Air Force – 9:45 a.m. in Summerall Chapel
Navy and Marines – 12 p.m. in Summerall Chapel
Free, open to the public

Nearly 200 of the U.S. military’s newest officers will be commissioned in three separate ceremonies on May 3. Citadel cadets who will join the armed services after graduation will take their commissioning oaths during their respective ceremonies. Approximately 35% of the South Carolina Corps of Cadets Class of 2019 will accept commissions into the military.

The Army’s commissioning ceremony will be held at 8 a.m. in McAlister Field House, the Air Force’s will be at 9:45 a.m. in Summerall Chapel, and the Navy and Marine’s ceremony will be at 12 p.m., also in Summerall Chapel.

The commissioning cadets will be officially sworn in as officers during the South Carolina Corps of Cadets commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 4.

Long Gray Line parade

Friday, May 3
3:45 p.m.
Summerall Field
Free, open to the public

Approximately 550 cadets will take part in the Long Gray Line parade on May 3. The Long Gray Line refers to the men and women who have graduated from the South Carolina Corps of Cadets and the unique ties that bind those that graduate to others who have come before, and all who will come after.

During the parade, the Class of 2019 Regimental Commander Sarah Zorn will pass the sword and control of the South Carolina Corps of Cadets to Class of 2020 Regimental Commander Richard Snyder.

South Carolina Corps of Cadets commencement

Saturday, May 4
9 a.m.
McAlister Field House
Free, tickets required

The South Carolina Corps of Cadets commencement ceremony will celebrate approximately 550 graduating members of the Class of 2019.

Doors open for ticketed guests at 7:30 a.m. A livestream broadcast location will be available in Grimsley Hall Auditorium for guest overflow and attendees who do not have tickets.

This year’s speaker at the cadet graduation ceremony is Lt. Gen. Kenneth Franklin McKenzie, Jr., Commander of U.S. Central Command. McKenzie is a graduate of The Citadel Class of 1979, who earned a commission into the U.S. Marines Corp and trained as an infantry officer. He assumed command of U.S. Central Command in March 2019.

The Citadel has implemented a clear bag policy which will be in effect for all commencement activities.

For the full commencement week schedule, parking instructions, ticket information and security restrictions, please visit the Corps of Cadets 2019 commencement page.

The Citadel Graduate College commencement

Saturday, May 4
3:30 p.m.
McAlister Field House
Free and open to the public

The Citadel Graduate College commencement ceremony will celebrate graduate, evening undergraduate and veteran students of the Class of 2019.

This year’s speaker at the graduate college ceremony is The Honorable Robert Wilkie, the 10th Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He was sworn into office in July 2018, after serving as the acting secretary for almost four months.

Tickets are not required to attend the ceremony in McAlister Field House.

The Citadel has implemented a clear bag policy which will be in effect for all commencement activities.

For the full commencement schedule, parking instructions and security restrictions, please visit The Citadel Graduate College 2019 commencement page.

Citadel’s assistant provost featured at League of Women Voters South Carolina convention

May 4 – 5
Town & Country Inn and Suites, Charleston, SC
Open to League of Women Voters members

J. Goosby Smith, Ph.D., The Citadel’s assistant provost for diversity, equity and inclusion, will lead a breakout session at the League of Women Voters South Carolina convention. Smith will lead a discussion titled, “Becoming a More Inclusive Leaguer,” on Sat. May 4 at 1 p.m.

The convention will be from May 4 – 5, in the Town & Country Inn and Suites, located at 2008 Savannah Hwy, Charleston, SC.

Topics to be discussed include:

• Voter access and the election process
• Redistricting
• Ethics reform
• Regulatory reform
• Education
• Healthcare
• National resources

To find more information or to purchase full or partial tickets, click here.

The Citadel Success Institute

Monday, June 10 – Tuesday, July 2
Monday, July 8 – Tuesday, July 30
The Citadel campus
Registration required

Incoming Citadel freshman can prepare to succeed academically and physically during The Citadel Success Institute in July. During the optional, 23-day program, the future cadets take core curriculum courses, learn and apply crucial academic skills, improve their fitness levels and receive guidance and mentoring from Citadel cadets.

For more information on the program, please visit The Citadel Success Institute page.

Middle school STEAM camps at The Citadel

Monday, June 10 – Friday, June 14
Monday, June 17 – Friday, June 21
9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
The Citadel campus
$250 fee, registration required

The Citadel will host two weeks of science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) camps in June. The camps, which are for children in grades 4-8, will focus on a different STEAM-related topic each week. Citadel faculty, staff, cadets and volunteers staff the all-day camps.

The 2019 camp themes are:

• June 10-14: 3D PRINTING & XR – Learn about 3D printing and mixed (virtual and augmented) reality
• June 17-21: ROBOTICS & PROGRAMMING – Explore Lego robotics and programming basics

To register for the camps, or for more information, click here.

GenCyber camp for girls

Monday, July 29 – Friday, August 2
9 a.m. – 4 p.m. each day
The Citadel campus
Free, registration required

Students can learn the basic concepts of cybersecurity at The Citadel’s weeklong summer camp. The camp’s full name is: GenCyber Citadel – Girls who Smash Codes: Cybersecurity Interdisciplinary Training Camp for Middle/High School Girls.

The cybersecurity camp for students in grades 8-12 will focus on the principles of security, network security, cryptography, secure coding, cybercrime and cyber ethics. Citadel faculty from the School of Science and Mathematics and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences will staff the all-day camps.

The cybersecurity camp is offered through a grant provided by GenCyber, which is funded by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Science Foundation. GenCyber is a program that provides cybersecurity experiences for students and teachers at the K-12 level.  In 2016, the NSA designated The Citadel as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education.

Registration for the cybersecurity camp is limited. To register for the camp, click here. For more information, please visit the STEM Center of Excellence summer camps page.

Important dates ahead

Citadel Success Institute – June 10 – July 2 and July 8 – July 30
Matriculation Day – August 17
End of Summer Furlough – August 25
Parents’ Weekend – October 5 – 6

April feature from The Citadel Experts Guide

The Citadel Experts Guide is a resource for journalists, researchers, K-12 teachers and community organizations looking for professors and staff who are leading influencers in their fields of interest. An expert will be introduced in each edition of Upcoming News from The Citadel.

Michael Livingston, Ph.D., is an associate professor at The Citadel, where he has been teaching since 2006. He holds degrees in History, Medieval Studies, and English. Livingston has published on a range of subjects from the 1st to the 21st centuries, and he is the general editor of the Liverpool Historical Casebook Studies, the associate editor of the TEAMS Secular Commentary Series, and an advisory board member of the TEAMS Middle English Texts Series.

Livingston is also an award-winning fiction author, published in a variety of genres and venues. He has already published one trilogy of novels, The Shards of Heaven, with another trilogy, Seaborn, on the way.

He has also been recently interviewed about the final season of Game of Thrones, both internationally by Vice News and locally by WCSC- Live 5 News.