Thursday’s 2:30 p.m. ceremony will feature graduates of the College of Business Administration, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the College of Medicine and the College of Optics and Photonics.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer will be the guest speaker. An Orlando native, Dyer has served as the city’s mayor since 2003. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Brown University and received a law degree from the University of Florida.

Friday’s 9 a.m. ceremony will include students from the College of Arts and Humanities, the College of Health and Public Affairs, the College of Nursing, and Liberal Studies and Social Science majors through the Undergraduate Studies and Graduate Studies offices.

The speaker will be Tico Perez, co-founder of Edge Public Affairs and a member of the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees Florida’s state universities. He received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from UCF in 1983 and was student body president. He went on to earn a law degree from Georgetown University.

Graduates in Friday’s 2:30 p.m. ceremony will be from the College of Education, the Rosen College of Hospitality Management and the College of Sciences.

The speaker will be Dede Schaffner, who is serving her third term as a member of the Seminole County School Board. As a parent volunteer, Schaffner founded Seminole County schools’ nationally recognized Dividends School Volunteer Program. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from UCF.

The Arena doors will open to guests 1 1/2 hours before the start of each ceremony. The procession of graduates will begin 20 minutes before the start of each ceremony. 

Guests must have tickets to attend the ceremonies. Guests without tickets are welcome to view closed-circuit telecasts of the ceremonies from the FAIRWINDS Alumni Center across the street from the UCF Arena. Broadcasts also will be posted after the ceremonies at http://webcast.oir.ucf.edu.

The anticipated graduates include 3,712 who filed intents to receive bachelor’s degrees, 810 for master’s degrees, four for education specialist degrees and 65 for doctoral degrees.

With this week’s graduations, UCF will have awarded more than 225,000 degrees since classes began in 1968. 

For more information, visit the commencement web page.