Editor’s note: The Commercial presents its fourth annual year-end education series, this year known as Class of 2024. Each year, we delve into the stories of Jefferson County’s brightest high school and college (baccalaureate or postgraduate) students, and learn about either their journey to the head of the class or purpose in the next step of their education careers.
This is the first entry in the Class of 2024 series.
LITTLE ROCK — More than a week ago, Tomekia Moore learned she would be chosen from her online cohort to deliver one of two student speeches at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service graduation at the Central Arkansas Library System’s Ron Robinson Theater.
“We will forever cherish this space and time in our memories,” the Pine Bluff native and resident said. “To our esteemed Clinton School of Public Service faculty and staff, thank you for investing in Cohort 5. You planted seeds of knowledge that fueled us to do our best to create resilient communities, empowering the individuals we service most.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Moore’s speech — a surreal but awesome moment, she described — was the cherry on top of her graduation with a master of public service degree. Moore is executive director of the Arkansas Community Action Agencies Association, which acts as a resource hub for 15 regions in the state with the purpose of advocating for community action. The ACAAA serves preschools, grade schools, adults in building employability skills and food distribution, among other things.
“What I would like to do is take my work forward,” said Moore, a 1997 Pine Bluff High School graduate and mother of a son enrolled at Southeast Arkansas College. “We can always look at things in growth and development. This degree is one more tool that will help me better serve my community, to work toward that community resilience we strive to see into action.”
Moore also graduated from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff with a degree in early childhood education. She is a board member of the Arkansas Early Childhood Association and a steering committee member of Arkansas Kids Count, an affiliate program of Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families.
SiKia Brent-Brown was one of Moore’s online classmates and credited her with taking on a leadership role among her peers.
“Tomekia encouraged everyone, kept track of us,” Brent-Brown said with a laugh. “We started out as a sizable class, and then as things transitioned, life happened. She kind of made sure she checked in — ‘Hey, how’re you doing?’ ‘How are the assignments going?'”
Moore began pursuing the degree in 2021 and took off a year to take on a Department of Education-backed grant with the Boys and Girls Club.
Moore’s 3-minute address was one of many highlights of Saturday’s graduation. Actress Mary Steenburgen, who was born in Newport and finished high school in North Little Rock, accepted an honorary master of public service degree from the Clinton School for her contributions to various organizations.
“I feel this award is not a sweet ending but a challenge to do more,” Steenburgen said. “The difference between a life lived vaguely and not vaguely is service.”
Connecticut native Stefanie Vestal was picked as speaker for the graduates who attended in class. Anita B. McBride, who worked in the Reagan and two Bush administrations and is now program director for American University’s First Ladies Initiative, was the guest speaker.
“You’re putting the greater good over your individual interest,” McBride told the class of 33 — 17 of them, including Moore, online students. “… All of you can be architects of the society we want to live in.”
Saturday’s graduation also paid a moment of silence to former Governor, Congressman and U.S. Senator David Pryor, the Clinton School’s founding dean who died April 20 at 89.
The setting inside a 10-year-old theater was perfect and beautiful for Moore’s big day, she felt.
“I think we were fortunate just to hear the words of wisdom,” she said. “There were plenty of nuggets. We were certainly encouraged to go out and do great things.”
Actress Mary Steenburgen, left, receives her honorary master of public service degree from University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service Dean Victoria DeFrancesco Soto during the school’s graduation Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Little Rock. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)More News
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Jefferson County 2024 graduation schedule
May 11: UAPB, 9 a.m., Simmons Bank Field at Golden Lion Stadium (keynote: actress Robin Givens)
May 16: Southeast Arkansas College, 7 p.m., Convention Center (keynote: UA basketball alumnus Ernie Murry)
May 17: Watson Chapel High School, 7 p.m., Convention Center
May 17: White Hall High School, 7 p.m., Bulldog Stadium
May 24: Pine Bluff High School, 7 p.m., Convention Center