(North Canton, OH – May 18, 2022) – Stark State College is set to graduate 623 students at its spring commencement Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Canton Memorial Civic Center and via YouTube.

The College will award 695 associate degrees in business, education, engineering technologies, health, human and public services, information technology, liberal arts, mathematics and sciences.

The commencement speaker will be Corey Minor Smith, a Canton native who The New York Times described as “a fascinating woman who moved 21 times and attended 14 different schools before graduating high school, (has a loved one living with schizophrenia), became a mother her senior year of college, and eventually went to law school and became a successful attorney.” A trained facilitator for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, she has appeared in national media, contributed to the Audible Original “We’ve Got Answers” and penned a powerful memoir, “#Driven.”

Minor Smith earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Bowling Green State University and a juris doctorate at the University of Toledo. Her 20-year legal career has been dedicated to public service as an assistant prosecutor, judicial attorney and mayoral cabinet member before serving as general counsel for the same public housing authority that provided housing for her and her family. Minor Smith made history as the first African American to be elected to a city-wide position when she received the most votes to serve as an at-large member of Canton City Council. She currently is appointed to serve with the Biden-Harris administration as senior counsel for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Friends and family who want to watch the commencement can find a YouTube link at starkstate.edu/graduation.