More than 3,800 students will take part in commencement ceremonies Friday and Saturday.
Texas Tech University will host spring commencement ceremonies Friday and Saturday (May 15-16) at United Supermarkets Arena, where 3,835 students will graduate. The School of Law wraps up the weekend with its hooding ceremony Saturday at the United Supermarkets Arena.
Arcilia Acosta, founder, CEO and president of CARCON Industries and Construction, will speak at the commencement ceremonies. Irma Carrillo Ramirez, a U.S. magistrate judge for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas division, will speak at the law hooding ceremony.
“Graduation is the culmination of years of hard work and dedication toward future goals,” President M. Duane Nellis said. “I speak for our faculty and staff when I express the pride I feel in all of our students. We wish these graduates great success moving forward.”
Acosta is a native Texan and graduated from Texas Tech in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in political science and later completed the Harvard University Business School's Corporate Governance Program.
She has served as the president and CEO of CARCON which has offices in Fort Worth,
Houston, Corpus Christi and Midland for 15 years. After founding CARCON, she created
Southwestern Testing Laboratories in Dallas, a geotechnical engineering and construction
materials testing firm.
In addition to her companies, Acosta serves on the board of directors of Energy Future Holdings Corporation, the parent company of TXU Energy, ONCOR Services and Luminant Corporations and other companies and groups such as Legacy Texas Financial Group, Inc., the Dallas Citizens Council, Associated Republicans of Texas and formerly the Texas Association of Mexican American Chamber and the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She also serves on the national alumni board for Texas Tech and is a member of the National Women's Energy Network.
Acosta is a nationally recognized entrepreneur, speaker and philanthropist recognized among women and businesses around the U.S. In March, she was named as a top corporate board director in Hispanic Executive Magazine.
Ramirez was sworn as a magistrate judge in 2002. As a judge, she has handled hundreds of federal civil cases, matters and motions in different areas as well as preliminary felony criminal proceedings, motions, trials and sentencings in misdemeanor and petty offense cases. She has authored more than 1,800 legal opinions in civil cases.
Ramirez received her bachelor's degree from West Texas A&M University in 1986 and her law degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law in Dallas in 1991 where she served as a Sarah T. Hughes Diversity fellow.
Friday ceremonies:
- 3 p.m. College of Arts and Sciences
- 7 p.m. Graduate School
Saturday ceremonies:
- 9 a.m. College of Architecture, College of Education, Whitacre College of Engineering, College of Human Sciences and College of Visual and Performing Arts
- 1:30 p.m. College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Rawls College of Business, College of Media & Communication, Honors College (Honors Arts & Letters and Environment and the Humanities only), University Programs and Wind Energy
- 6 p.m. School of Law Hooding Ceremony
