More than 650 graduates will receive degrees, diplomas and certificates at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College’s 44th graduation ceremony Saturday
The ceremony will be held at the Cabarrus Arena and Events Center and will begin at 10:30 a.m. with the procession of graduates. Guests are encouraged to arrive at the arena between 9 and 10 a.m. to ensure they are seated in time to see the procession.
Graduates range in age from 18 to 65, with 66 percent female and 34 percent male. Almost two-thirds of the graduates are employed and 120 of them have graduated from RCCC in other programs.
Lynne Scott Safrit will serve as the commencement speaker. She has served as president of Atlantic American Properties and the North American Commercial Division of Castle and Cooke Inc., since 1995. In that capacity, she has managed more than two million square feet of office and retail space and 500 residential units, and has been involved in the construction of office, retail, medical, country club and residential properties throughout the United States.
Safrit has worked in various capacities for David Murdock for 24 years, beginning with Murdock’s ownership of the Cannon Mills Co. in Kannapolis and the subsequent development of his real estate operations there.
A Kannapolis native, Safrit graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree from Catawba College in 1980 and from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1981 with a master’s degree.
She is a graduate of the Commercial Real Estate Institute, holds the CCIM designation and is a licensed general real estate appraiser in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Safrit is also a licensed real estate broker in North Carolina and South Carolina and is a member of the Cabarrus County Board of Realtors, the N.C. Board of Realtors, the Appraisal Institute, the Charlotte Commercial Board of Realtors, and the Urban Land Institute. She is a graduate of the N.C. Bank Directors’ College.
Active in an array of professional and civic organizations, Safrit currently sits on the Board of Trustees at Catawba College, the Board of Directors at the Bank of the Carolinas, the Gertrude Hinson Charitable Trust, the Foundation for the Carolinas, and the Cabarrus County Economic Development Corp.
Safrit is past president of the Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Cabarrus County Economic Development Corp. and has served on the YMCA Board of Directors, the Cabarrus Arts Council, the Kannapolis Community Chorus, the Cabarrus County Literacy Council, the Cabarrus County Tourism Authority, the Kannapolis Rotary Club and the NorthEast Medical Center Foundation Board of Directors. She served on the RCCC Board of Trustees from 1994 to 1998.
The Rev. Andy Langford, senior pastor of Central Concord Methodist Church, will provide the invocation and benediction.
RCCC President Richard Brownell will officiate.
Graduation marshals will include Marie Baker, Elena Bost, Kim Breedlove, Stephanie Crayton, Sandra Horne, Gale James, Jeremy Lydal, Kim Morgan, Alisha Moten, Teresa Pless, Joshua Pressley, Viktoriya Rumyantaseva, Brenda Smith, Christy Smith, Linda Stroud and Carolyn Young.
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The Cabarrus Arena and Events Center is on N.C. 49 in Concord. For more information or directions, log on to www.cabarrusarena.com.