Tech alum, Super Bowl champion Butker to deliver Saturday morning’s commencement speech
THE FLATS — Georgia Tech athletics will be prominently featured in this weekend’s commencement ceremonies at Bobby Dodd Stadium. In addition to the 79 student-athletes that will graduate from Georgia Tech this summer and fall, Tech alumnus, football letterwinner and two-time Super Bowl champion Harrison Butker will be the speaker at Saturday morning’s undergraduate commencement.
Tech student-athletes will receive their degrees across three different commencement ceremonies this weekend – Friday afternoon’s master’s ceremony and bachelor’s ceremonies on Saturday morning and afternoon.
The 79 student-athletes that will graduate from Tech this spring and summer include:
Baseball
Drew Compton (business administration)
Jackson Finley (business administration)
John Giesler (business administration)
Jadyn Jackson (business administration)
Ben King (biology)
Joseph Mannelly (master’s – real estate development)
Brandon Prince (business administration)
Jack Rubenstein (master’s – real estate development)
Josiah Siegel (business administration)
Dalton Smith (business administration)
Men’s Basketball
Coleman Boyd (business administration)
Women’s Basketball
Nerea Hermosa (applied languages and international studies)
Football
Henry Freer (chemical and biomolecular engineering)
Jalen Huff (business administration)
Kenan Johnson (business administration)
Cade Kootsouradis (business administration)
Will Milam (business administration)
Chris Miller (business administration)
Luke Moseley (business administration)
Kalani Norris (business administration)
Jeremiah Smith (literature, media and communication)
Ryan Spiers (business administration)
Gavin Stewart (business administration)
Golf
Bartley Forrester (business administration)
Connor Howe (business administration)
Andy Mao (industrial engineering)
Ross Steelman (history, technology and society)
Softball
Meghan Cassidy (business administration)
Emma Kauf (biology)
Spirit
Joseph Ashley (biomedical engineering)
Ryan Baker (mechanical engineering)
Alexia Cainion (neuroscience)
Elizabeth Cooper (computer science)
Logan Hudson (literature, media and communication)
Kolbie Johnson (computer science)
Caitlin Kaiser (earth and atmospheric science)
Jocelyn Kavanagh (music technology)
Rebecca Lieber (public policy)
Calyn Siver (psychology)
Julia Stager (biology)
Emily Thom (industrial engineering)
Jarret Torres (chemical and biomolecular engineering)
Isabelle Williams (architecture and building construction)
Men’s Swimming & Diving
Atticus Cohen (mechanical engineering)
Jonathan Shaheen (mechanical engineering)
Women’s Swimming & Diving
McKenzie Campbell (industrial engineering)
Abby Cohen (neuroscience)
Kyrsten Davis (computer science)
Imane El Barodi (mechanical engineering)
Morgan Johnson (mechanical engineering)
Duda Seifer (business administration)
Brooke Switzer (biomedical engineering)
Nicole Williams (computer science)
Carmen Woodruff (chemistry)
Men’s Tennis
Brandon McKinney (business administration)
Women’s Tennis
Rosie Garcia Gross (business administration)
Ava Hrastar (business administration)
Men’s Track & Field/Cross Country
James Cragin (business administration)
Brian Hauch (civil engineering)
Dylan Jean-Baptiste (electrical engineering)
Lee Keil (business administration)
Cole Miller (master’s – mechanical engineering)
Jameson Miller (mechanical engineering)
Harrison Morris (aerospace engineering)
Ronan Sullivan (mechanical engineering)
McKinley Thompson (environmental engineering)
Joshua Williams (materials science and engineering)
Women’s Track & Field/ Cross Country
Onyinye Chukka (biology)
Reese Crawford (psychology)
Liz Galarza (master’s – mechanical engineering)
Taylor Grimes (mechanical engineering)
Mary Kathryn Knott (psychology)
Attallah Smith (environmental engineering)
Ilene Soleyn (business administration)
Mikayla Williams (business administration)
Volleyball
Julia Bergmann (applied languages and international studies)
Nicole Drewnick (business administration)
Breland Morrissette (analytics)
Erin Moss (chemical and biomolecular engineering)
Prior to their commencement ceremonies, the graduating student-athletes were honored during Georgia Tech athletics’ semi-annual graduation brunch on Friday morning. Speakers included graduates Reese Crawford (women’s track and field/cross country), Attallah Smith (women’s track and field/cross country) and Ben King (baseball). During the event, the graduates received their white stoles to identify them as student-athletes during their commencement ceremonies.
Butker returns to The Flats as a commencement speaker after kicking the game-winning field goal with eight seconds to go in the Kansas City Chiefs’ 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII in February. It was Butker’s second world championship in six seasons as a pro, as he also helped lead the Chiefs to the Super Bowl LIV title in 2019. He remains Georgia Tech’s all-time leading scorer after amassing 337 points in four seasons as a Yellow Jacket from 2013-16, and is a 2017 Tech grad (industrial engineering).
Off the field, the Harrison Butker Family Foundation was created to support the community and combat human trafficking. Butker is the current honorary chairman for the Dream Factory of Greater Kansas City, an organization dedicated to making dreams come true for critically and chronically ill children. The Decatur, Georgia, native is on the board of Regina Caeli Academy, a home school hybrid academy with locations across the country. His entrepreneurial endeavors include co-founding MDKeller, a multifaceted holding company, and Madison Manufacturing.
Georgia Tech athletics boasts a 91% graduation success rate in the latest data provided by the NCAA. The 91% NCAA GSR is an all-time high for Tech, which had never achieved a GSR above 85% prior to 2016. Nine of the Yellow Jackets’ 13 teams – men’s cross country/track & field, women’s cross country/track & field, football, golf, softball, men’s swimming & diving, women’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis and volleyball – have individual team GSRs equal to or higher than the national average in their respective sports.
