Mars Hill University To Honor Graduates and Present an Honorary Doctorate

May 5, 2026

Mars Hill University’s spring commencement ceremony will honor nearly 200 bachelor’s and master’s level graduates, along with retired businessman and longtime university trustee, Wayne Higgins of Weaverville, North Carolina, who will receive an honorary doctorate. Commencement will take place in Moore Auditorium on Saturday, May 9, 2026, at 9:30 a.m., and will be livestreamed on Mars Hill’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@MarsHillU/streams.

Student speakers will be Laela Jimenez of Naples, Florida, and Jakub Pawelczak of Knightdale, North Carolina. Jimenez is a nursing major and will represent the traditional student population; Pawelczak is a social work major and will represent the Adult & Graduates Studies graduates. Special music will be presented by Jordan Speece, a music performance major from Lewisville, North Carolina. The invocation will be delivered by Matthew Pacheco, a community and nonprofit leadership major from Windermere, Florida. Paul Powell, a 1979 Mars Hill alumnus and current chair of the board of trustees, will bring remarks on behalf of the trustees.

Wayne Higgins will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree during the graduation ceremony. Higgins is a 1975 Mars Hill graduate who spent his career with Carolina Farm Credit, retiring as senior vice president and a member of the company’s senior management team. He has provided decades of service and leadership to the university, serving first on the board of advisors and then on the board of trustees, on which his tenure began in 1998. He served two terms as chair of the board and was named a trustee emeritus in 2019.

He served on the presidential search committees which selected Presidents Dan Lunsford and Tony Floyd. He was part of the Building Our University campaign steering committee and currently serves as chair of the Together We Rise campaign steering committee, which recently achieved its $24 million goal to build the university’s new campus center.

Higgins was inducted into the Mars Hill University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022 and was named both the Lion Legacy Award recipient and Alumnus of the Year in 2025. He and his wife, Patty, have made a lasting difference in the lives of students by awarding scholarships for more than 20 years to North Buncombe High School seniors who attend Mars Hill University.

In conjunction with commencement, graduates of the Judge-McRae School of Nursing will have their pinning ceremony on Thursday, May 7, at 1:30 p.m. in Moore Auditorium. Graduating nurses receive a pin which signifies their transition from the student role to the medical practice role. The tradition is said to have originated in the 1860s with Florence Nightingale.

The university also will honor Heritage Students—graduates whose parents or other immediate family members are Mars Hill alumni—by presenting them a special cord to wear with their cap and gown regalia. That ceremony will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 8, in the Sunken Garden.