Fuqua School held its commencement on Friday, May 24, at 6 o’clock on the front lawn of the Upper School campus. Keeping with the tradition of inviting alumni to deliver the commencement address, this year’s guest speaker was 2006 Fuqua School graduate, Julia La Roche. J La Roche continued her education by attending University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and graduating in 2010 with a major in Journalism and Mass Communications. Julia now resides in New York City and currently serves as a senior writer and on-air reporter for Yahoo Finance. In addition to her career accomplishments, La Roche was also crowned Miss New York in 2014 and competed in the Miss United States pageant.
Fuqua School’s Class of 2019 had nine summa cum laude (GPA 4.0+) graduates, eight magna cum laude (GPA 3.6 – 3.99) graduates, and eight cum laude (GPA 3.2 – 3.59). Fuqua School’s 34 graduates were collectively offered over $6.6 million in scholarships to various colleges and universities. The 2019 Fuqua School graduates will use $1.9 million in academic scholarships for an average of $59,375 in financial assistance for each senior.
The Fuqua School graduate from Charlotte County is Collin West Tharpe, son of Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Tharpe. Collin plans to attend Liberty University in the fall. He graduates magna cum laude.