Education activist, alum to speak at Oklahoma State University commencements
Friday, May 2, 2014
“Dr. Trent is an inspiration and we are proud to call her an alum,” said OSU President
Burns Hargis. “She is a walking testament to education as the pathway out of poverty,
and she is utilizing that same pathway to ensure a new life for students in rural
Africa, as the founder of an educational foundation.”
Hargis will recognize Trent’s many accomplishments by bestowing one of the university’s
highest honors, the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.
Trent is scheduled to speak at all three of the undergraduate ceremonies on Saturday.
The first, at 9:30 a.m., will honor graduates from the College of Education and the
College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The 12:30 p.m. commencement will
honor graduates from the Spears School of Business and the College of Agricultural
Sciences and Natural Resources. The 4 p.m. commencement will honor graduates from
the College of Human Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences.
The Graduate College commencement is set for Friday, May 9, at 7 p.m. at Gallagher-Iba
Arena. The Center for Veterinary Health Sciences commencement will be held Friday,
May 9, at 1:30 p.m. in Gallagher-Iba Arena. In all, more than 3,500 students will
earn degrees.
Secretly educating herself as a youngster, Trent rose from a childhood of poverty
in Africa to earn both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from OSU while raising
a family. She shattered all barriers to become a symbol of hope for women in her home
village and gained widespread attention when TV host Oprah Winfrey designated Trent
her “all-time favorite guest.”
Trent earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education from OSU in 2001, followed
by a master’s degree in 2003 and a doctorate from Western Michigan University in 2009.
When Trent joined Winfrey as a guest on the Oprah Show in 2011, Winfrey announced
that she had donated $1.5 million to help Trent build a school for the children in
her hometown in rural Zimbabwe, Africa.
Trent founded Tinogona Foundation to build, repair and renovate schools in rural Zimbabwe.
Through strategic partnerships with the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and Save the Children,
nine schools are being built and education has been improved for nearly 4,000 children
so far.