2013 Commencement and Events

Nurses Pinning Ceremony May 2 at 7 p.m. at Cokesbury UMC Knoxville

Baccalaureate Ceremony  May 3 at 8 p.m. in Townsend Memorial Hall

Commencement Ceremony at May 4 at 9 a.m. on Wesley Commons Lawn

TWC to celebrate 156th Commencement

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The highlight of the academic year, Tennessee Wesleyan College’s 2013 Commencement ceremonies will be the college’s 156th and will span three days and three events.

The celebration of academic achievement begins Thursday, May 2 at 7 p.m. when TWC’s Fort Sanders Nursing Department hosts its Senior Convocation and Pinning Ceremony for more than 60 2013 nursing graduates. The ceremony will be held at Cokesbury United Methodist Church, located at 9908 Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tenn.

Following Thursday’s pinning ceremony is the college’s Baccalaureate service which will be held Friday, May 3 at 8 p.m. in Townsend Memorial Hall at the Athens, Tenn., campus. This year’s Baccalaureate sermon will be given by Reverend Joe Green, United Methodist Church District Superintendent for Cleveland, Tenn.

TWC’s three-day celebration will conclude Saturday, May 4 at 9 a.m. when more than 200 graduates will walk across the stage at Commencement. The ceremony will be held on TWC’s Wesley Commons Lawn and will honor the classes of 1953 and 1963 as Golden Anniversary Alumni. Saturday’s Commencement speaker will be Congressman Chuck Fleischmann, who represents the 3rd District of Tennessee.

Baccalaureate Speaker Reverend Joe Green was appointed in June of 2012, by Bishop James Swanson of the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church to serve as the Cleveland District Superintendent. The Cleveland District is comprised of 45 charges and 69 churches.Green is a native of Appalachia, Va., and for nearly four decades has served as a pastor in the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church. This has included appointments in Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee. His most recent appointments include serving at the Fort Oglethorpe (Ga.) UMC from 1980 to 1991 and, most recently, he served 17 years as Senior Minister at First UMC in Alcoa, Tennessee.

Rev. Green received his bachelor’s degree from King College in Bristol, Tenn., before continuing on to attend Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky., where he completed his Master of Divinity. 

Commencement speaker Congressman Chuck Fleischmann, a native of New York, is the U.S. Representative from the 3rd Congressional District of Tennessee, a district made up of 11 counties which include Anderson, Bradley, Campbell, Hamilton, McMinn, Monroe, Morgan, Polk, Roane, Scott and Union Counties.

Fleischmann received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at the University of Illinois where he also received both Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude honors.  He went on to earn his Doctor of Jurisprudence from the College of Law at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn.

Fleischmann founded a Chattanooga, Tenn., law firm, Fleischmann and Fleischmann, where he and his wife, Brenda, practiced law for 24 years.  He is a former president of the Chattanooga Bar Association and former chairman of the Chattanooga Lawyers Pro Bono Committee.

Currently, Fleischmann serves on the Appropriations Committee.  Within that committee, he serves on three subcommittees:  Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies, Homeland Security, and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies. He has also served on the board of the National Craniofacial Association and on the board of the Cherokee Area Council of Boy Scouts of America.

In the event of inclement weather, Saturday’s Commencement will be moved to McMinn County High School’s gymnasium and will begin at 10 a.m.  An announcement will be posted on the college’s website and Facebook page and updated through local radio stations.