DENTON (UNT), Texas — This spring will bring a special anniversary for the University of North Texas and the College of Education – 100 years of awarding four-year bachelor’s degrees.

In 1919, five students became the first to receive four-year bachelor’s degrees in education from what was then called North Texas State Normal College. The four-year degrees represented a turning point for the university, which was founded in 1890 as a teacher training school.

During spring commencement ceremonies May 9 – 11, more than 4,800 students are expected to receive bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees from UNT.

The ceremonies will be on the UNT campus in the Coliseum, 600 Avenue D, and in the Murchison Performing Arts Center, 2100 N. I-35 East, in Denton.

The College of Education ceremonies begin at noon at the UNT Coliseum and can be streamed live online.

The five pioneering students received their bachelor’s degrees in 1919 were Wynne B. Graham, E.S. Guest, Kathryn Hancock, Evan Victoria Hatch and Karl P. Horton. According to the school newspaper of the time — The Campus Chat — by 1938, four of the five were still teaching. Guest was the principal of Pittsburg High School; Graham was teaching history in the Oklahoma City Schools; Hancock was teaching English in Blossom, Texas; and Eva Hatch taught English at Texas State College for Women.

Today, UNT is one of the nation’s largest public research universities with 38,000 students who choose from 230 programs — many nationally and internationally recognized — to pursue their goals of becoming teachers, artists, engineers and everything in between.