More than 350 students from Virginia State University crossed the stage Saturday and received their degrees at the 10th annual winter commencement.

Friends and family members filled Daniel Gymnasium early Saturday morning for the commencement exercises and were welcomed by Harry Black, vice rector of the VSU board of visitors.

Black said that he could understand the excitement the graduates were likely feeling waiting for their degrees. "These exercises mark a new beginning or commencement, but also a joyful finale," Black said. "The candidates seated before us have diligently labored to complete the requirements for graduation. In some respects, our work here is done."

But Black said the task now for friends and family is to sit back and watch the graduates fly with the confidence they have gained at the university.

The speaker, Ralph B. Everett, president and CEO of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, also said that he could remember what it was like sitting at his commencement.

"Almost 40 years ago, I sat where you sit today as a happy and relieved student about to graduate from Morehouse College. It was a feeling like no other feeling," Everett said. He described the beaming faces of friends and relatives, including the woman that would one day become his wife and another that would be his mother-in-law. "Of course I didn't know that at the time."

Read more at the Petersberg (VA) Progress-Index.