PEMBROKE – A total of 19 current and former student-athletes received their bachelor's degrees at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke's winter commencement exercises on Saturday in Pembroke. Three former student-athletes – soccer's Brittany Padilla, football's DeVante Bush and golf's Dana Watkins – were hooded on Friday evening inside the Givens Performing Arts Center as part of UNCP's graduate school ceremony.
 
Many of those student-athletes were on hand to take part in the athletics department's bi-annual Student-Athlete Graduation Breakfast on Saturday morning inside UNC Pembroke's University Center. Head coaches, along with select members of UNCP's athletics administration, presented the graduation candidates with stoles to commemorate their time as a student-athlete for the Black & Gold.
 
UNCP Athletics Class of 2017
Baseball – Justin Dattilo
Women's Basketball – Jonissa Monley
Cross Country/Track & Field – Michael Powell
Football – DeVante Bush, Alpha Lamin, Christopher Ploch, JoJo Spann, Elijah Williams, Albert Wright
Women's Golf – Amanda Levy
Men's Soccer – Johannus Cuarezma, Tucker Crowder, Kelvin Sarkorh
Women's Soccer – Brittany Padilla, Carolina Sanchez
Volleyball – Alicia Paeplow, Josephine Yang
Wrestling – Shiheem Bryant, Jake Smith, Andrew Moore, Casey Malloy
Spirit Squad – Kacey Rowe