Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback and current entrepreneur, community advocate and public speaker Charlie Batch will be speaking at Point Park’s commencement ceremony 

The ceremony will be held on May 2 at CONSOL Energy Center. Doors open for the event at 8:30 a.m., and commencement begins at 10 a.m. 

“My goal is to try to make them remember who their commencement speaker was in 10, 20, 30 years,” said Batch in a telephone interview April 16. 

Megs Yunn, a 2007 Point Park graduate, will be speaking at Point Park’s hooding ceremony on April 26 at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown Hotel, which begins at 2 p.m. 

“The message I’m giving is you can never plan out how life happens, so when you get an opportunity, take it,” said Yunn in a telephone interview on April 16. 

Mark Farrell, chair of Natural Sciences and Technology in the School of Arts and Sciences, will be grand marshal at commencement, where it is expected that 713 students will graduate and Steven Hallock, Director of the School of Communication Graduate Programs and associate professor of journalism, will serve as grand marshal to the expected 280 students to receive graduate degrees, according to University press releases. 

Since retiring from the NFL in 2012, Batch ventured into charity and community work. Born and raised in Homestead, Pa., Batch played for the Detroit Lions from 1998 to 2001 when he was signed to the Steelers as a back-up quarterback. 

Batch said the theme for his speech will be “expect greatness.” 

According to Batch, throughout his football career, he always knew he would be away from the game longer than he’d be in it.

“We all know the day will pass us at some point, so I tried to build something while I was playing to move to when it ended,” Batch said. 

In 1999, Batch founded The Best of the Batch Foundation, a nonprofit organization aimed at “improving the lives of children and families in distressed communities by building character, self-esteem, and appreciation for education,” according to the foundation’s website. 

According to Batch, it serves about 3,300 kids annually in six different counties, and he wants to continue to build the foundation because the children he meets are his inspiration. 

Batch has also become a public speaker since retiring from the NFL, speaking at events ranging from high school graduations to corporate seminars. 

In 2007, he became spokesperson for United Way, which he said was the start of his speaking career. Batch has made speeches at several other universities and will soon speak at Eastern Michigan University’s commencement, his alma mater. 

“It’s truly humbling to be asked to speak at ceremonial events in people’s lives because [universities] can literally ask anyone to do it, so to even be on that list is just really humbling,” said Batch. 

Batch’s speeches normally include his personal experiences both inside and out of the helmet and involve audience participation and interaction. 

Yunn, who earned her M.B.A. from Point Park in 2007, founded her own nonprofit organization, Beverly’s Birthdays, in 2011. She said the theme of her speech will be highlighting life’s “Ah-ha” moment. 

“Beverly’s Birthdays is a nonprofit which was made simply to provide birthday cheer,” Yunn said. “I’m excited to get to share my story with some of my peers.” 

The name of the organization comes from a girl Yunn met while working with an after school program who had never had a birthday party or even a slice of birthday cake. Yunn said this was her life’s “Ah-ha” moment and started Beverly’s Birthdays as a way to spread birthday cheer to everyone, even children who are homeless, so nobody goes unnoticed on their special day. 

In 2011, Yunn’s organization’s idea was selected as the winner of a scholarship contest out of over 1,000 entries, and she received a startup grant to help her grow the organization. 

Yunn said the organization celebrates six to eight birthdays a month, usually for multiple kids at a time, and has distributed over 1,200 birthday presents since it was founded. It has 33 agency partners and serves six different counties. 

She didn’t attend her own hooding ceremony, so she is excited to be speaking at this year’s and considers it to be a huge accomplishment.