The College of the Ozarks baccalaureate service and the commencement ceremony will take place in the Howell W. Keeter Athletic Complex at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively. Commencement is a ticketed event for graduates and their families.

Ceremony marks the 115th annual commencement for the College

POINT LOOKOUT, MO. — College of the Ozarks will host its 115th Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 7, 2022, in The Howell W. Keeter Athletic Complex on the College campus. The ceremony will honor 342 graduating students: 104 Bachelor of Arts, 222 Bachelor of Science, and 16 Bachelor of Science in Nursing. This is a ticketed event for graduates and their families.

The top five majors of the graduating class are business administration, education, psychology, engineering, and nursing.

Dr. Isaac Hatton will speak at commencement at 2.p.m. in The Howell W. Keeter Athletic Complex.

Hatton attended College of the Ozarks from 2006-2009 and married his college sweetheart Camille, a graduate of the nursing program at College of the Ozarks, during medical school. The Hattons felt called towards full-time medical mission work and began working overseas during Hatton’s residency. In 2019, the Hattons formed a team with Dr. Samuel and Jessica Porter (also C of O alumni) and moved to Northern Iraq to work with a Christian charity serving refugee families. More recently, they have begun a project to care for children with physical disabilities in their local community.

The College of the Ozarks Baccalaureate Ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. in The Howell W. Keeter Athletic Complex, with Rev. L.J. Evers as the baccalaureate speaker. This event is open to the public.

Evers is the director and founder of Here to There Movement, a mission organization working specifically with unreached people groups. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from College of the Ozarks in 2001 as a recipient of the Ozarks Fellowship. The following week, he married his wife Nicole. L.J. and Nicole have served as a part of church planting teams in various capacities, from associate to senior leadership. As L.J. helped to train leaders in more than 30 different countries, he and Nicole began to focus on unreached people groups — those with almost no access to Jesus or the church. They currently live in a Pakistani and Indian community in Houston, Texas.

The GOLD Candidates

Every year during commencement, officer candidates are commissioned as part of the ceremony. This year, the following five will be commissioned into the U.S. Army:

Officer Candidate Caleb Cunningham is a criminal justice major from Ozark, Missouri. He is commissioning as an infantry officer with the 3-138th Regiment of the Missouri Army National Guard.

Officer Candidate Gabriel Greco is an engineering major from Kansas City, Missouri. He is commissioning as an engineer officer with the Missouri Army National Guard’s 1141st Engineer Company.

Officer Candidate Talon Saylor is a double major in agronomy and animal science. He is from Harrison, Arkansas, and will also be an infantry officer with the 3-138th Infantry Regiment in the Missouri Army National Guard.

Officer Candidate William Smith is an exercise science major from Hollister, Missouri. He will also serve with the 3-138th Infantry Regiment as an infantry officer in the Missouri Army National Guard.

Officer Candidate Drew Vinson is an exercise science major from Farmington, Arkansas. Vinson will serve as an engineer officer with the Missouri National Guard’s 1135th Engineer Company.