This is the third entry in our Class of 2025 series.
Less than 2 minutes into taking the podium, Smokie Norful belted a short, a cappella rendition of “I Need You Now,” the title track of his 2002 gold-certified album. That was just one highlight from his 14-minute address to University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff graduates at their spring 2025 commencement Saturday inside the Pine Bluff Convention Center.
A 1995 UAPB graduate who’s won two Grammys and 19 other prestigious awards as a gospel artist, Norful also offered a message to the 252 graduates and their supporters: They did it.
“I know those papers were laced with grace, full of wisdom and a whole lot of ChatGPT,” said Norful, a senior pastor at churches in the Chicago and Atlanta areas. He is pursuing a doctorate of ministry from Los Angeles’ Biola University.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“But you did it!” he reminded the graduates.
And if any of them are looking for someone to make an impact on society, they need to look no further than within.
“Your bloodlines will be different. Your country will be better inhabited. Your world will never be the same,” Norful said. “Some of you are waiting on somebody to do it. ‘If they would just … If they would just start one … I wish they would build one … I wish they would launch one, create one, who will build here …’ well, I am here to tell you — it’s you. It’s you.”
Two of Norful’s children have finished college with one presently a junior in southern California. When Tre’ Norful graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Smokie recalled, billionaire Robert F. Smith pledged to pay off the debt of every student in the 2019 class. The donation, Smokie said, was estimated at $40 million.
“Well,” the elder Norful started, raising the hopes of graduates and attendees, “let me assure you this ain’t that.” The crowd laughed heartily. “Not on a pastor’s salary. … But I can say, ‘You did it!'”
Interim Chancellor Andrea Stewart presided over her second graduation ceremony. She will relinquish the role at the end of June to make way for Anthony Graham, who was appointed in March from Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina.
Norful said Stewart was his wife Carla’s favorite teacher at UAPB.
Caleb Williams, of the Student Government Association, offered the student reflections, not long after he was commissioned a second lieutenant along with DeAndra Haynes in the U.S. Army.
“Every little encounter you’ve had with people, every conversation you’ve had when no one was listening, these relationships may not be the same when you leave here, but they happened here,” Williams said. “Never think that anyone here has ever taken you for granted. Everything that happens in history is submitted there forever. Like writing in stone, it’s there forever.”
The 9:45 a.m. processional was just the start of Jesus Riera’s day. Graduating cum laude with a degree in general studies, Riera had to shed the gown and cap for his baseball uniform and take the field with the Golden Lions against Jackson State University at Bill Jones Field at the Torii Hunter Complex.
“It’s exciting. It’s something that I worked for, for the last four years,” said Riera, who transferred from Alabama A&M University. “To be able to come out here and graduate is amazing.”
Riera is considering a master’s degree in business.
“I want to work around baseball, so maybe some front office-type job,” he said.