UGA tight end chosen as lone student commencement speaker

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By Tim Tucker

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATHENS -- Aron White hopes to provide a counterpoint on Friday to all the negative publicity Georgia's football team has drawn this year.

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Georgia tight end Aron White - celebrating Georgia's 2009 win over Georgia Tech in Atlanta - has been selected as the lone student speaker for fall-semester commencement ceremonies at Georgia.

Johnny Crawford, jcrawford@ajc.com Georgia tight end Aron White - celebrating Georgia's 2009 win over Georgia Tech in Atlanta - has been selected as the lone student speaker for fall-semester commencement ceremonies at Georgia.

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Of the 1,700 UGA undergraduates who will receive their degrees at fall-semester commencement ceremonies, White will be the lone student speaker.

The tight end from Columbia, Mo., was chosen for the honor by a six-student committee appointed by the Student Government Association. White interviewed with the committee after submitting an application, a resume and a copy of his proposed speech.

He was motivated partly by a desire to help rebuild the image of a football team damaged by the well-publicized arrests of 11 players this year.

"I definitely want to leave my speech with people having a more positive opinion of the athletic association and the football team than when they went in," White said on Wednesday. "I think our reputation has suffered in the past couple of years. We haven't necessarily had the best showing to the public, and I think people's opinion of us has turned a little bit negative.

"It's very important that we all do our best to combat that opinion. ... We are humans, we make mistakes, but all you see in the news is the negative for the most part. Hopefully this is something where people would say, ‘There's a positive headline in the newspaper that [a football player] is speaking at graduation.' That is one of my goals for this speech, for sure –- to be a positive representation of the football team and the athletic association."

White, who has one season of football eligibility remaining, is graduating one semester ahead of schedule with a degree in management. He plans to play for the Bulldogs again next season while beginning work, he hopes, on a master's degree in sport management. He aspires to be a college athletic director someday.

Josh Delaney, president of the UGA Student Government Association, said White was a clear choice by the committee selecting the student speaker for commencement.

"I think everyone really connected with the story he had to tell," Delaney said. "And this year particularly, it just felt appropriate to have a student-athlete give this message because we all know UGA athletes haven't always been positively presented in the press. ... It was clear he was the strongest candidate."

White, who declined to reveal the contents of his five-minute speech on Wednesday, said he has been practicing his delivery.

Coach Mark Richt said he's proud of White's role, "and I'm hoping we can get some good pictures of that."

Said Richt: "That belongs in all our recruiting materials and things you want to start bragging about. Aron is a highlight, no doubt. ... think it is a very positive thing for us."

Etc.

UGA's fall-semester final exams ended Wednesday, and the Bulldogs resumed practice for the Liberty Bowl with an early evening workout. Light snow fell on the practice field for part of the session. ... Three Georgia seniors have been invited to post-season all-star games: offensive lineman Clint Boling to the Senior Bowl in Mobile, linebacker Akeem Dent to the East-West Shrine Game in Orlando and wide receiver Kris Durham to the Texas vs. Nation Game in San Antonio. ... Richt on former Georgia player and new Florida coach Will Muschamp: "I don't know if he'll admit [it] to everybody, but he's still a Georgia man in a lot of ways. I think he'll do well. He's a very good coach and a good person." ... Richt said he wasn't surprised that offensive linemen Cordy Glenn and Trinton Sturdivant were among the underclassmen who asked the NFL for a projection of their draft status. "I think every junior in America is kind of curious where they sit as far as the NFL is concerned," Richt said. "We certainly don't want any of those guys to go, but we'll just wait and see what happens down the road."