Tennis legend and activist Billie Jean King, filmmaker Jon M. Chu, National Endowment for the Arts chair Maria Rosario Jackson and National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt will all receive honorary degrees at USC’s 141st commencement ceremony in May, the university announced Friday, April 12.
Chu will also be the commencement speaker.
The honorary degrees will be presented by USC President Carol Folt during the May 10 ceremony at Alumni Memorial Park. The honorees were chosen by a committee of students and faculty.
Long Beach native King is regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, winning 39 Grand Slam singles, doubles and mixed-doubles championships, including a record 20 Wimbledon titles. A philanthropist and equal-rights pioneer, she was one of the first female athletes to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Chu is a director and producer best known for his 2018 film “Crazy Rich Asians,” and he is also behind the upcoming theatrical version of the Broadway smash “Wicked.” He is an alum of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and also funds a scholarship benefiting students whose projects focus on Asian Pacific culture.
Jackson, who has master’s and bachelor’s degrees from USC, is the first Black and Mexican-American woman to lead the NEA. She previously served on the National Council on the Arts, to which she was appointed by President Barack Obama.
McNutt is a geophysicist and former editor of the Science family of academic journals. She was also the director of the U.S. Geological Survey, responding to major earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and Japan, as well as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
More than 19,000 degrees will be conferred during this year’s commencement, including 6,600 undergraduate degrees, either at the main ceremony in Alumni Memorial Park or at one of the satellite ceremonies across campus. More than 60,000 people are expected to attend.
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