For the Gazette

STEVENS POINT – An alumna who leads one of the top high schools in Illinois will address more than 550 graduates and their families at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s winter commencement ceremony on Dec. 17.

Edwina Thompson, a 2004 graduate of UW-Stevens Point, is principal of Lane Tech College Prep in Chicago. She will speak to graduates from campuses in Stevens Point, Marshfield and Wausau who are earning doctoral, master’s, bachelor’s and associate degrees.

The ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. in Skyward Fieldhouse (formerly the Multi-Activity Center) inside Marshfield Clinic Health System Champions Hall, 2050 Fourth Ave., Stevens Point.

The event will also be livestreamed at www.uwsp.edu/commencement.

Chancellor Thomas Gibson will lead the ceremony with the assistance of Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs La Vonne Cornell-Swanson. Deans of each college will preside over presentation of degrees. Student soloist Allison Koerner, music education, Allenton, will perform the national anthem and Alma Mater, accompanied by the UW-Stevens Point Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Andy Moran, associate professor of horn.

The graduating class student speaker is Anthony Fannin, a history and social studies education major from Hortonville, Wis. Alumni Stephon Kiba Freeman, ’14, and Jenna Freeman, ’11, Stevens Point, will lead the alumni pinning ceremonies.

Guests may park in any campus lot for free, except Lot F West, which will be used for handicap access.

Thompson, the first African American and alumna of Lane Tech to serve as principal, also taught English at the school and served as assistant principal. She has overseen the English department, initiatives for equity and attendance, tours of historically black colleges and universities and the school’s gospel choir and Black Student Association. She also developed the school’s inaugural African American literature course.

Thompson holds a bachelor’s degree in English education from UW-Stevens Point and a master’s degree from Concordia University in River Forest, IL.