Kent State’s 2017 summer commencement ceremonies will take place Saturday Aug. 19, at the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center (MAC Center).

The university will confer 1,422 degrees which include 908 bachelor’s degrees, 427 master’s degrees, 67 doctoral degrees, and 20 educational specialist degrees.

Kent State alumnus Robert M. Archer will be the speaker at the baccalaureate degree ceremony, which starts at 9:30 a.m.

“I’m going to speak a lot about entrepreneurship, since that’s one of my favorite topics of course, and hope to reach the new graduates with some of the things I’ve learned over the years,” Archer said.

Archer is the CEO and owner of Kent Watersports and serves on the Ashland YMCA Board of Trustees, the Huntington Bank Regional Advisory Board and the Ashland University Board of Trustees. Archer graduated from Kent State in 1961 with an MBA in business administration.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of groups before but this will be by far the largest,” he said. “I’ve never been asked to do a commencement speech before and being at Kent will make it even more interesting.”

The advanced degree graduate ceremony is at 1:30 p.m. and recognizes those who are receiving their master’s, doctoral and educational specialist degrees.

Dennis Cuneo will be the speaker for the ceremony and is a former senior vice president of Toyota Motor North America. After leaving Toyota, he formed his own consulting firm, D.C. Strategic Advisors LLC.

Commencement ceremonies are streamed live at www.kent.edu/commencement/webcast.

For more information about Commencement, visit www.kent.edu/commencement.

Jenna Kuczkowski is the managing editor. Contact her at [email protected].