Stories this week at WFU

STUDENTS GRADUATE AS HUSBAND AND WIFE
The weekend of commencement will be a busy time for Wake Forest seniors Joseph Hipps and his fiancée Meagan Hooper. Three days before graduation the two plan to get married at Graylyn International Conference Center. Hipps, a music major from East Flat Rock, and Hooper, a theatre major from Charlotte, will live in Italy after graduation. They then plan to move to New York City to pursue their careers in the arts.
Contact: Sarah Mansell, manselss@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237

INJURY PROMPTS PRO BASEBALL PLAYER TO EARN DEGREE
When Mike Buddie, a 33-year-old professional baseball pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers, injured his elbow last August, he didn’t spend time sulking. He spent a few months in recovery, and then enrolled at Wake Forest to finish the undergraduate degree he started in 1989. “Being injured wasn’t a good thing,” says Buddie. “But if it had to happen, it was good timing.” Buddie was the starting pitcher for the Wake Forest baseball team before he was drafted in 1992 by the New York Yankees. He lacked just one semester’s worth of credits. Buddie, the father of two children, returned in January 2004 and will receive his bachelor’s degree in communication during the May 17 commencement ceremony. His wife, Tracy, is a 1995 graduate of Wake Forest.
Contact: Sarah Mansell, manselss@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

POLITICAL SCIENCE MAJOR EAGER FOR POWELL’S SPEECH
Mike Bradow, a senior from Plano, Texas, may be listening to Secretary of State Colin Powell’s address more closely than some other students; he hopes one day to work for the state department. “Having worked in one of our overseas embassies and applied to the Foreign Service, I hope that Colin Powell will be my future boss,” says Bradow, a political science major. He was named male Senior of the Year by the student newspaper, Old Gold & Black. His political activism and volunteer spirit have taken him to the Republic of Georgia, Ghana, South America and India.
Contact: Sarah Mansell, manselss@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

MASTERING THE MBA
Amy Maguire and Bill Watson will graduate from the Babcock Graduate School of Management May 17 having earned some of the nation’s top honors for business plans. Maguire and Babcock teammate Desiree McClimon took honors at the annual Venture Challenge 2004 in San Diego with their business plan for the Sandbox Learning Co., a service Web site for professionals and parents working with children with disabilities. Watson and fellow Babcock graduate Tim Sheehan received the Outstanding Business Plan award at the Northwest Venture Championship at Boise State University on March 17-19 for their Fuel Services Corp. plan.
Contact: Dusty Donaldson, dusty.donaldson@wfu.mba.edu or 336-758-5238.

MORE SENIOR STORIES
Among the graduates receiving degrees May 17 will be Sarah Hubbard, a chemistry major and recipient of the Barry M. Goldwater scholarship; Jennifer Harris, a double major in political science and economics and a Rhodes Scholar; Austin Harris, an analytical finance major who created a student-run news Web site; and Rosita Najmi, an economics major who started a nonprofit organization, was named to USA Today’s All-Academic Team and was recognized as one of Glamour magazine’s top ten college women of 2003.
Contact: Sarah Mansell, manselss@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

END OF SPRING SEMESTER
Classes ended April 28 and final exams for the spring 2004 semester will be completed May 8.