For some, college is a stepping stone toward the rest of their lives. For others, it is a time of boundless opportunity for growth and exploration. A select few fully capitalize on this opportunity and walk away with the awards to show for it — a vast collection of cords to showcase at graduation.
David Itson is a senior accounting major and May 2026 graduate who has accumulated seven cords.
Itson will receive cords from The Brothers Initiative, the Black Student Association, Student Government Association, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and for being a tour guide and resident assistant for the university.
“Each cord made me into the person that I am today,” he said.
Itson was a recipient of the Fleming Scholarship and a member of the Black Male Excellence Initiative, a residential learning community where he lived during his freshman year. Later, in his sophomore year, he began interning at the BSA.
His junior year, he became the head of community outreach for BSA, a role created just for him. In this role, he created events for the club. By the end of the year, he was offered the president position, which he declined in favor of becoming vice president and treasurer.
It was during this time that the university experienced cuts to diversity, equity and inclusion, and the Black Male Excellence Initiative was taken away.
“I had a lot of support as a Black student my freshman year, but I slowly started seeing those supports taken away,” he said.
Seeing a need for that support, Itson and his peers created The Brothers Initiative, a mental health and student empowerment organization for men of color, and he came on as the organization’s president.
“We just simply come together, talk s—, say our woes of life and eat,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you how many times people have came and expressed themselves fully and left feeling better.”
His senior year, he joined SGA as the director of campus resources. There, he helped raise funds for the wellness center, promoted Black History Month and raised awareness for health protocols on campus. He also joined Alpha Phi Alpha as the chaplain, treasurer and social media specialist.
During all this, Itson said he felt stretched thin.
“Imagine if I took all that energy and put it in one thing, how amazing that one thing could have been,” he said. “Don’t do what I did.”
Instead, he encourages others to be leaders. He said the experience helped shape him into who he is.
“This has taught me what my career and my future is going to look like,” he said.
This summer, Itson will intern for the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and has aspirations of getting his doctorate and becoming a provost or president of a university.
Another May 2026 graduate with both high achievements and aspirations is Chloe Lemos, a senior criminal justice major who has accumulated five graduation cords.
Lemos received cords from graduating as a second lieutenant in the Reserve Officer Training Corps, achieving magna cum laude, being a first-generation student and from being part of the Scabbard and Blade honor society and the National Society of Pershing Rifles.
Lemos said she does not consider herself to be a cord collector. Rather, her motivation was job security after college.
“I got my pick of the litter,” she said.
This summer, she will take part in the Logistics Basic Officer Leadership Course at the Army Sustainment University in Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia. In December, she will go to Fort Carson, Colorado, where she will be stationed for three years.
She has aspirations to work for either the Naval Criminal Investigative Service or the FBI.
ROTC also served as a source of community for her, which often lightened the load of her work.
“There definitely have been some days where it’s like, ‘Why am I doing this?’” she said. “But having a support system has definitely helped out a lot.”
Through ROTC, Lemos met Captain Sam Snelson, who became a role model for her. Snelson was the first female instructor she had in the program, and she said it was otherwise difficult being one of only two women in her ROTC senior class.
Lemos served as the national commander for the National Society of Pershing Rifles, a drill ceremonies club, where she performed with the color guard at football games, and as the treasurer for Scabbard and Blade, a community service club.
She said she put a lot of effort into the organizations and had a lot of learning experiences through them.
“I don’t think I would ever change anything from the four years I’ve been here,” Lemos said.
