Professors Hasselman and Fokeladeh Address MC December Graduations

Emily Fokeladeh

Two distinguished professors at Mississippi College and a successful nurse practitioner will serve as guest speakers at the Christian university’s December 2012 graduations.

Modern languages professor Emily Fokeladeh addresses the university’s undergraduate ceremony at 2 p.m. on Friday December 14 at the A.E. Wood Coliseum. A longtime education professor, Gerald Hasselman speaks at the Graduate School commencement at 7 p.m. later that day in the coliseum.

A third graduation ceremony is set for the School of Nursing that Friday at 11 a.m. in Swor Auditorium. The guest speaker is Scott French, the nurse practitioner at the Baptist Healthplex in Clinton. French is a graduate of the MC School of Nursing.

Mississippi College’s 2012 professor of year, Emily Gordon Fokeladeh was born in Jackson, but grew up in the house in Clinton where her mother was born and raised. The property sits across the street from the Baptist Healthplex.

Fokeladeh received her bachelor’s degree in English and Foreign Languages from Mississippi College in 1965. After earning her MC diploma, she received a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Vienna, Austria for a year and completed her master’s degree in German at the University of Mississippi in 1968.

In 1973, Fokeladeh began her teaching career at her alma mater in Clinton and is now in her 40^th year as a German instructor in the Department of Modern Languages. Actively involved in the Faculty Senate and at Northside Baptist Church in Clinton, Fokeladeh teaches cross-cultural understanding classes at her alma mater.

“My roots run deep - in this town and at this university,” Fokeladeh says. Her trips abroad have taken her to Austria, Syria, Lebanon, Switzerland, Brazil and Turkey, to name a few of the places she’s visited around the globe.

Her sons, Hamed, 42, an environmental engineer, and Samir, 34, who works for Campus Dining, Inc., at Mississippi College, both live in the Jackson area. A Clinton resident, Fokeladeh has two grandchildren.

Another Clintonian, Hasselman received his doctorate in education from Mississippi State University in 1989. He earned his education specialist in 1979 and masters in education in 1971, both from Mississippi College. The Holly Springs native received his bachelor of arts from Millsaps College in 1968 and associate of arts from Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia in 1966.

Hasselman has served as a Mississippi College professor since 2003 after working as an instructor and education director at William Carey University. A former Oxford High principal, he served as an associate state superintendent of education at the agency’s Jackson headquarters.

Sports – from golf to St. Louis Cardinals baseball – are a big part of his life.

A member of the Faculty Senate, and Intercollegiate Athletic Committee, Hasselman is a former Millsaps and Northwest basketball player. He faithfully runs the clock at MC men’s hoops games at the Golden Dome.

Hasselman family members are the recipients of eight degrees from Mississippi College. He and his wife, Patricia, a retired teacher, have three children and two grandchildren.