Commencement Speakers

Ms. Dyamond ShaRae Carr ’23
President, SGA
Winston-Salem State University

Dyamond ShaRae Carr serves as president of the Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) Student Government Association (SGA), a position she assumed in the summer of 2021. She is a double major in Political Science and English with double minors in Legal Studies and Africana Studies. In her role as SGA president, she serves as the chief representative and official spokesperson for the student body to the administration, faculty, staff, and the surrounding community. Her responsibilities include creating, managing, and upholding the standards and goals of the strategic plan for the SGA Executive Board and serving as a voting member of the WSSU Board of Trustees. She has served on the ASG Council of Student Body Presidents.

Ms. Carr serves as the executive secretary of the National Consortium of HBCU SGA Presidents USA, an association serving as the active collective of HBCU students nationally. In addition to maintaining the official record of all legislative sessions and of the executive committee, she assists with communication between HBCU SGA presidents. In the summer of 2021, she was among twenty-eight student participants in the National Association of Student Affairs Professionals Leadership Institute in Savannah, Georgia.

Since the fall of 2020, Ms. Carr has been a mentor with Project Uplift & New Student Orientation at the university. As a mentor, she serves as a liaison between incoming freshmen and other students with a goal of retaining them at the university. Within the last year, she has mentored more than twenty incoming freshmen.

Dyamond Carr is an honor student, achieving Dean’s List status from 2019 to 2021. She has presented at the North Carolina Political Science Association Conference and served on the WSSU Mackenzie Scott Gift Workshop Committee, as well as on SMiLE CAMPAiGN, L.E.A.D, and Active Minds. Currently, she is Miss Black and Old Gold for the Beta Iota Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. A past Miss Sophomore (2020-21) and Miss Freshman (2019-2020), Ms. Carr is also a member of the Epiphany Modeling Troup and the Fusion Dance Team. Her life motto is D(y)amonds are made under pressure.

Ms. Faith A. Parker ’22
Senior Class President, Class of 2022
Winston-Salem State University

Ms. Faith A. Parker is a senior, Mass Communications major with a concentration in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Justice Studies. An honor student, Ms. Parker aspires to a career in television broadcasting. In preparation for her career, she has completed an internship in digital marketing at RED VENTURES in Charlotte, where she was responsible for learning and applying digital marketing skills and participated in various professional development activities, while also assisting with case studies.

Ms. Parker currently is president of the Class of 2022. In this role, she is responsible for presiding over and advocating for the Senior Class, serving on the Commencement Committee which plans and implements fall and spring graduation activities, and working with the WSSU Alumni Association. She is also a student member of the National Association for Media Literacy Education for which she created a project for Media Literacy Week. During the 2020-2021 academic year, Ms. Parker served as a senator in the Student Government Association.

Committed to community service, Ms. Parker donates her time and talents to a number of non-profit organizations. She has volunteered with the Second Harvest Food Bank, organizing food pantries and distributing food to needy families; with the Loaves and Fishes of Charlotte, organizing donated goods for distribution; and with the Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte, composing words of encouragement and letters and delivering baked goods for the families.

Ms. Parker’s life motto is based on Psalm 46:5: God is within her, she will not fail!