East Carolina University and Pitt Community college will hold graduation ceremonies this weekend.

ECU's Departmental graduations begin today, as more than 20 schools and colleges hold ceremonies, with full commencement Saturday at Dowdy-Ficklin Stadium.

PCC's ceremonies get under way at 7 p.m. Sunday at Minges Coliseum, with approximately 400 students receiving degrees.

Nearly 3,400 students will graduate from ECU, including approximately 2,400 undergraduates, 910 graduate/professional students and 73 medical students.

Though the commencement itself is set for 10 a.m., ceremonies begin with a 9:30 a.m. concert by the ECU Wind Ensemble.

ECU graduate Thomas Spaulding, CEO of Up with People, will give the commencement address.

Spaulding, who graduated from ECU in 1992 with a degree in political science, received ECU's Outstanding Alumni Award in 2006. Before becoming president and CEO of Up with People in 2005, Spaulding had been the group's director of corporate affiliates, and prior to that, held positions at IBM/Lotus Development.

Up With People provides its participants with opportunities to perform a musical stage show in cities and towns worldwide, while offering them leadership roles and teaching them how to meet the needs of the communities they inhabit through service learning projects. More than 20,000 young people have participated in the Up with People program.

Susanne Sartelle, president of the Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce, will deliver the commencement address at the PCC graduation.

Sartelle has served as president of the local chamber since December 2001. She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina's journalism school and has served five different communities in two states in more than 20 years as a chamber of commerce professional.

ECU will award honorary doctor of letters degrees at Saturday's spring commencement to three residents of eastern North Carolina: Felix Harvey, Valeria Lee and Walter Williams.

Harvey, of Kinston, is a philanthropist and one of the most successful businessmen in North Carolina.

Lee, of Rocky Mount, is president of the Golden LEAF Foundation, which distributes tobacco-settlement funds to help ease the transition from a tobacco-dependent economy.

Williams, an alumnus and longtime benefactor of the university, is the founder of Trade Oil Co., which merged with WilcoHess in 2005. He is a lifelong resident of Pitt County.

In addition to the graduation ceremony, several programs are celebrating their first graduating classes.

ECU's marriage and family therapy program in the Department of Child Development and Family Relations will graduate the nation's first three medical family therapy doctoral students. ECU's engineering program also will graduate its first class of 22 students.

TODAY

Minges Coliseum/Williams Arena

9 a.m. Education

Noon Allied Health

3:30 p.m. Health & Human Performance

7 p.m. College of Business

Wright Auditorium

9 a.m. Nursing

Noon Biology

3 p.m. Brody School of Medicine

7 p.m. Communication

Hendrix Theatre

9 a.m. Art

Noon Music

3:30 p.m. English

7 p.m. Economics

Mendenhall Student Center Great Rooms

3 p.m. History

Howell Science Complex - Room B-103

3 p.m. Physics

Brewster D-313

2 p.m. Philosophy

McGinnis Auditorium

1 p.m. School of Theatre and Dance

Fletcher Recital Hall

8 p.m. Sociology

Bate 1031

3:30 p.m. Foreign Languages and Literatures

SATURDAY

Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium

10 a.m. university graduation

Minges Coliseum/Williams Arena

2 p.m. Human Ecology

Wright Auditorium

2 p.m. Psychology

6 p.m. Technology and Computer Science

Hendrix Theater

2 p.m. Political Science

4 p.m. ROTC Commissioning

Mendenhall Student Center

Great Rooms

4 p.m. Honors Program