Walden University will host a special online commencement honoring its graduates and their milestone achievement at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, February 6, 2021. The ceremony will stream live on Walden’s website and Facebook.
The keynote speaker for Walden’s 64th Commencement will be Dr. Myron Rolle, a former NFL safety, Rhodes Scholar and neuroscience resident at Massachusetts General Hospital. A rare combination of experience in the fields of education, sport and medicine, Dr. Rolle’s career has taken him from the football field to the front lines, as he currently works and volunteers to aid the hospital in the fight against the COVID-19 global pandemic.
“Commencement is a special time to honor our remarkable graduates’ dedication, hard work and extraordinary achievement,” says Dr. Ward Ulmer, president of Walden. “In 2020, the world experienced incredible hardships due to COVID-19. From our healthcare heroes to our dedicated teachers, and every profession in between, we’ve seen so many of our students and alumni rise to the occasion to help their local communities. Our graduates will be inspired by this year’s speaker, Dr. Myron Rolle, who is one of the many admirable healthcare professionals on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic and is also effecting positive social change through his non-profit foundation.”
Dr. Rolle was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in 2010, where he played for three seasons before enrolling at the Florida State University (FSU) College of Medicine and, eventually, Harvard Medical School in 2017. Now in his fourth year of Harvard’s residency program, Dr. Rolle credits his dedication, determination, preparedness and adaptability forged on the football field for having primed him to successfully transition from professional sports to a career in medicine.
At FSU, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Exercise Science in just two and a half years and was awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship upon graduation in 2008, enabling him to study at Oxford University in England. Dr. Rolle skipped his senior year of football at FSU to pursue a master’s degree in Medical Anthropology at Oxford and simultaneously train for the National Football League (NFL) Draft. In 2010, Dr. Rolle was selected in the sixth round of the NFL Draft by the Tennessee Titans and finished his career three years later with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Myron L. Rolle Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 2009, is dedicated to the support of global health, wellness, educational, and other charitable initiatives benefitting children and families in need. Dr. Rolle also serves on the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and Clinton Global Initiative, and he is a co-creator of the Emerging Scholars Project for underrepresented college students applying for a Rhodes Scholarship.
For more information on Walden’s 64th Commencement celebration, please visit WaldenU.edu/commencement.
