FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n
Monday, December 9, 2019<\/p>\n
STEPHENVILLE, Texas— Blake Dorsett credits his faith for turning his life around.<\/p>\n
He came to Tarleton State University on academic probation and graduates in a few days with a 3.9 GPA and a degree in international business. He will share his life message as the keynote speaker at commencement exercises at 4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13, at Wisdom Gym on the Stephenville campus.<\/p>\n
Working with the PHOS college ministry at Elk Ridge Baptist Church kept him around like-minded students and even guided a change in educational and career plans. He grew up in Round Rock and came to Tarleton to study wildlife. “I like animals. That’s something I’ve been passionate about my whole life.”<\/p>\n
He was a wildlife and sustainable ecosystems major but reasoned that it would be better to go the business route when he realized what he wanted to accomplish long-term. “I didn’t really see myself doing animal biology or being a game warden. It wasn’t what I was called to do.”<\/p>\n
Now he and wife Sydney, a Tarleton nursing student, have other plans.<\/p>\n
“I want to move overseas, be an entrepreneur, start my own business, preferably something related to agricultural development,” he said. “I want to go with my wife somewhere impoverished so we can help jump-start the economy.”<\/p>\n
Though they haven’t pinpointed a destination, they are considering several places they have visited in their travels.<\/p>\n
Blake also was active in Tarleton’s Men’s Society and is a member of Delta Mu Delta Business Honor Society.<\/p>\n
“I think Tarleton is a wonderful school,” he said. “They keep students very engaged. When you’re going to Tarleton, you’re not just going to get an education, you’re going to have an experience.”<\/p>\n
His commencement address will focus on his personal campus experiences, which he calls his “I can’t believe this is happening” moments, including being persistent enough to convince Sydney to go out with him.<\/p>\n
“She said no to dating me for three years,” he said. “When we finally started dating it was one of those moments.”<\/p>\n
Blake will begin studying for his master’s this month but knows that his faith and Tarleton have made his college career a success already.<\/p>\n
“Tarleton did a lot to make education more fun,” he said. “But it was walking with Christ that made all the difference.”<\/p>\n
Tarleton, founding member of The Texas A&M University System, provides a student-focused, value-driven education marked by academic innovation and a dedication to transform today’s scholars into tomorrow’s leaders. It offers degree programs to more than 13,000 students at Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian, RELLIS Academic Alliance in Bryan, and online, emphasizing real-world learning experiences that address societal needs while maintaining its core values of tradition, integrity, civility, excellence, leadership and service.<\/p>\n
Contact: Phil Riddle Blake Dorsett credits his faith for turning his life around.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He came to Tarleton State University on academic probation and graduates in a few days with a 3.9 GPA and a degree in international business. He will share his life message as the keynote speaker at commencement exercises at 4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13, at Wisdom Gym on the Stephenville campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[423,425],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics-research","category-campus-community"],"acf":{"image":null},"author_meta":{"display_name":"keegan","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/keegan-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2021\/11\/image-558-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Academics & Research<\/a>","Campus & Community<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Academics & Research<\/span>","Campus & Community<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 6 years ago","modified":"Updated 6 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on December 9, 2019","modified":"Updated on October 7, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on December 9, 2019 12:00 am","modified":"Updated on October 7, 2025 9:46 am"},"featured_img_caption":"Man in a suit with a red bow tie, smiling outdoors.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54234,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26677\/revisions\/54234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
817-484-4415
priddle@tarleton.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"