Hundreds receive degrees at YSU Spring Commencement

YOUNGSTOWN

The popular 1989 Cher hit “If I Could Turn Back Time” served as inspiration for part of a saying on Billy Blaze’s cap, but it also came with a major caveat: He has no desire to wallow in the past.

“I’ve been given an opportunity to develop a skill set to move on with the next chapter of my life,” said Blaze, whose black cap read in full, “If I could turn the clock back, I wouldn’t.”

He doesn’t need to, because time can’t change the fact that he was among the hundreds of students who received degrees during the first of two Youngstown State University spring commencements Saturday in Beeghly Center.

Because of the high number of graduates, the tradition was divided into morning and afternoon ceremonies.

Those who took home associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees after the earlier ceremony were from the Williamson College of Business Administration, the Beeghly College of Education and the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

The afternoon graduates were in the Cliffe College of Creative Arts and Communications, the Bitonte College of Health and Human Services and the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

Blaze, of Hermitage, Pa., is majoring in advertising and public relations. He proudly recalled having spent three years doing largely marketing, graphic and social-media work as a member of Penguin Productions, an organization of students and advisers dedicated to creating, promoting, organizing and producing musical events on campus.

Read the full story Sunday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.