SWU to confer degrees in three ceremonies

Winter graduation exercises will draw graduates, their families and friends to Southern Wesleyan University’s campus in Central December 13 and 14.

The speaker for the ceremony will be Alex Baxter. Baxter is the chief digital officer and chief media officer at Competitor Group, Inc. (CGI), where he oversees a digital organization that includes digital media, e-services and e-commerce divisions, in addition to a media publishing group made up of six magazines and a book publishing business.

Prior to CGI, Baxter was the vice president and general manager - digital for Condé Nast's PARADE Publications, where he built online content networks reaching more than 55 million unique visitors monthly. He was also executive director of digital media at Wenner Media, where he spearheaded Internet, mobile, video and other interactive initiatives that were innovative for their time. Baxter has also served as director of Internet sales and marketing at News Corporation’s Dow Jones & Co. for The Wall Street Journal's vertical network of digital properties and managing partner for Transition Assistance Online - TAOnline.com - a web property that helps United States military veterans transition off of active duty and into civilian life.  

Baxter holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and both a BS and BA from Southern Wesleyan University. He sits on the Advisory Board of FertilityAuthority.com and Columbia University’s Academic Programs in Applied Analytics, and is an adjunct professor in digital media at New York University. In August 2013 he left New York after nine years and moved to Southern California with his wife Amanda and five-year-old daughter Sophie. Southern Wesleyan’s Alumni Association recently recognized Baxter with the Young Leader Award, as well as the Professional Excellence Award for the School of Business.

The December 2013 graduation exercises of Southern Wesleyan University will be held in Newton Hobson Chapel and Fine Arts Center. The university expects to confer 325 degrees, according to Registrar Rock McCaskill.

Students graduating from the university’s traditional program will participate in the ceremony on Friday, Dec. 13, at 3 p.m. There will be two separate graduation ceremonies on Saturday, Dec. 14, for students graduating from the university’s adult evening programs. The 10 a.m. ceremony on Dec. 14 is for students earning associate degrees, bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees from the Central, Greenville, Greenwood and Spartanburg locations. The 3 p.m. ceremony on Dec. 14 is for students earning associate degrees, bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees from the Columbia, Charleston and North Augusta locations.

For details, call the Academic Records Department at (864) 644-5530. Tickets, issued through the university, are required for those attending the Dec. 14 ceremonies. For guests without tickets, overflow seating is available, allowing guests without tickets to view the ceremony via a closed circuit broadcast. Details are available at www.swu.edu/graduation.

Other end-of-semester events at Southern Wesleyan include Baccalaureate Chapel Dec. 13 at 10 a.m. in Newton Hobson Chapel and Fine Arts Center.

The Baccalaureate speaker is Rev. William “Scott” Frost. Frost served in the U.S. Navy for 20 years, where he began as an enlisted air traffic controller and then received a commission as an air traffic control officer. At his final duty station in Key West, Fla., Frost recommitted his life to Christ and was introduced to The Wesleyan Church. After his military service ended, Frost’s involvement in a church plant and prison ministry while serving as a felony investigator for the public defender’s office led to a realization that God was calling him into fulltime ministry. 

Frost moved with his wife Dana and their two children to Central in 1999 so that he could attend Southern Wesleyan, where he graduated in 2002, then went on to earn his master’s in theology at Erskine Theological Seminary in 2005. He joined Southern Wesleyan’s Religion Division faculty and has been closely involved in online course development. 

A licensed minister in The Wesleyan Church since 2006, Frost was recently ordained through the South Carolina District in July 2013. The Frosts are actively involved in lay ministry at ALIVE Wesleyan Church in Central. Dana, who is Southern Wesleyan’s director of human resources, received her bachelor’s degree in business and MBA through SWU’s adult evening program. Their son, Collin, will receive his business degree during the Dec. 13 ceremony. Their daughter, Kara, a recent law school graduate, is working in Maryland.

The university’s Baccalaureate Chapel includes a “Ceremony of the Servants” and a challenge for graduates of the university to find ways to serve the needs of people throughout the world.

With regional education centers conveniently located across South Carolina, as well as fully online programs for select degrees, Southern Wesleyan University is a Christ-centered, student-focused learning community devoted to transforming lives by challenging students to be dedicated scholars and servant-leaders who impact the world for Christ. For details about degree programs, visit swu.edu.