UCF conferred the 400,000th degree at 2022 Summer Commencement

POSTED ON Aug 25, 2022

The 400,000th degree conferred since classes at the University of Central Florida (UCF) began in 1968 went to Laura Segarra this August. According to UCF, she accepted her doctorate in industrial engineering at the ceremony.

The first in her family to graduate from college, Segarra has worked at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for over 20 years. Initially, she served with the Space Shuttle Program. She has vivid memories of being at her grandmother’s farm in upstate New York to catch a glimpse of Halley’s Comet and view the Milky Way.

Over the last decade, she has worked in the Commercial Crew Program with multiple companies to achieve the very first commercial human spaceflight to the International Space Station and return the capability to transport humans to and from low-Earth orbit to the United States.

Besides Segarra, about 3,900 degrees were conferred during UCF’s Summer 2022 commencement.

Among the degrees UCF has conferred in its history, about 78,000 have been in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, with 48,000 in engineering, computer science, and optics; and 47,000 in health professions, including nursing.

The total degrees include more than 63,000 master’s degrees and more than 7,000 doctoral degrees, UCF said. Click here to read more.