College graduates are inheriting a dangerous and broken world marked by a global financial system in turmoil, skyrocketing unemployment and loss of confidence in leadership at all levels of our nation and world, local businessman Tom Hood told Charleston Southern graduates.

Hood, president and CEO of First Financial Holdings Inc., gave the CSU commencement speech Saturday to 313 students receiving their degrees and thousands of friends and family at the North Charleston Coliseum.

"Charleston Southern students, more than any other time in our history, we need you, the graduating class of 2009," said Hood, a past chairman of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce. "We need your imagination, your hope, your optimism, your commitment, your leadership, and most of all your faith — your dreams."

Among the graduates was Kelly Nicole Laffey of Goose Creek, who went through the school's nursing program. Her oldest son was born prematurely and spent several months in a neonatal intensive care unit. It was during this time that her calling became clear. "My son is alive today because of talented health care professionals, more so the nurses who tended to him," she said.

Ridgeway native Edwin Squirewell became the first person in his family to earn a college degree. The biochemistry major was awarded the Dean's Merit Graduate Fellowship at the University of Iowa, where he will receive an annual stipend of $25,000, plus tuition, fringe benefits and fees. He'll spend the next five years working toward a doctorate, researching the strategies of drug recovery, analysis and design.

The school awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree to Hood for community service. Johnny E. Ward of Moncks Corner, a past chairman of the trustee board and a member of the board of visitors, received an honorary doctor of public service degree. The distinguished service award was presented to Freda Turner Ott.

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