![\"There](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2022\/08\/romero-graduation-wide-shot-700-medium.jpg\")
There was a standing room only crowd for Romero’s ceremony.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Romero not only received her degree and a handshake from President Elizabeth Davis, but she heard her name called by Dean John Beckford in the same, unmistakable manner he did for 598 others a few nights earlier.\u00a0 She was also cheered on by her teammates, coaches and some 30 faculty and staff members who came to see Romero get her degree.<\/p>\n The extra effort by the University was not lost on Romero and her family, who had traveled to Texas for the tournament and then came to campus for her graduation ceremony.<\/p>\n \u201cI told my parents it would be just me, my coaches and teammates at the ceremony, so we were all surprised that so many people were there,\u201d said Romero, a sociology and communication studies major from Cali, Colombia.\u00a0 \u201cIt meant a lot to me that President Davis, Athletic Director Mike Buddie and everybody else took time out of their day to come to the ceremony. This is just another example of how strong the Furman community is and how much they care about their graduates.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Brad Barron, Furman\u2019s Associate Dean and Registrar, it was just a few years ago the University began hosting a special ceremony for senior student-athletes who missed graduation because of commitments with their teams.\u00a0 He said this year was the third time Furman had held such a ceremony, but it was the first time there was a standing room-only crowd.<\/p>\n Athletic Director Mike Buddie and Romero’s teammates\u00a0watched her receive her degree.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Many of those in attendance were members of the university\u2019s Purple and White Golf League, which is comprised of about 60 members from the faculty and staff.\u00a0 Since Kelley Hester became head coach of the women\u2019s golf team in 2012, the players and coaches have joined league members for one round each spring, allowing the league to get to know the golfers personally.\u00a0 So when an email went out to the league concerning Romero\u2019s special Commencement, a good many of the members showed up to support her.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it shows the kind of impact Val has had on people during her time at Furman,\u201d Hester said.\u00a0 \u201cShe\u2019s a very positive person who makes people feel great, and to have that kind of attendance at the ceremony says a lot about the kind of young woman she is.\u00a0 It also says something about the type of school Furman is.\u00a0 I\u2019ve coached at five different schools, and Furman is only place I\u2019ve been that does something like this for their student-athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n Romero not only knew from the beginning of the school year that there was a good chance she would miss Furman\u2019s Commencement, it was the very thing she wanted.\u00a0 Because if she was at Commencement on May 7 it could have only meant one thing: the team had missed qualifying for the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cMy Furman team is my family and my number one priority, so I was more than willing to miss graduation,\u201d said Romero, who plans to live and work in the U.S. once her Furman career is over.\u00a0 \u201cGoing to the regionals and qualifying for the finals was our main goal.\u201d<\/p>\n The 24-team NCAA Championship will be held May 20-25 at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It wasn\u2019t senior Valentina Romero\u2019s intention to miss Furman\u2019s Commencement on May 7, but it couldn\u2019t be helped.\u00a0 She was a thousand miles away in Bryan, Texas, where she was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":15863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3,51,35,22,61,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-alumni","category-communication-studies","category-parent-news","category-sociology","category-the-furman-advantage","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Athletic](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2022\/08\/romero-graduation-teammates-medium.jpg\")