Commencement Weekend speakers will include Jaclyn Haynes, Upper School science teacher, at Baccalaureate and Dr. Ryland Scott, current parent and local surgeon, at Commencement.
Haynes has served as Upper School chemistry and environmental science teacher since 2019 and also works with the Dar Farm program. With more than two decades of experience teaching, she holds a B.S. in Biology from Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Ga., and Master of Education in Educational Technology from Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. She has also completed graduate-level gifted coursework at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala. She is the mother of current students Nora ('36) and Holt ('32). The Baccalaureate speaker is selected each year by the senior class.
Dr. Scott and his wife, Jennifer, are the parents of Kate ('23), Parker ('23) and Ryland ('23). A bariatric and general surgeon, he was born and raised in Atlanta and educated at The Westminster Schools. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Washington & Lee University, completed both medical school and his surgical residency at Emory University, and an advanced laparoscopy fellowship at the University of Virginia. In 2003, Dr. Scott established the first comprehensive Bariatric Surgery program in Northwest Georgia, which now has more than 3,000 weight loss surgery patients. He serves as a clinical associate professor for the Medical College of Georgia and has co-authored a major textbook chapter on Bariatric Surgery. He has also instructed representatives from 40 countries on the art and science of laparoscopic surgery.
Dr. Scott has national and international affiliations as a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), and is a fellow of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS). He has been honored as a recipient of the Heart of the Community Award and the National Frist Humanitarian Award. He is a foster parent, a member of the Board of Directors of Restoration Rome, a founder of Young Life in Floyd County, and an elder at First Presbyterian Church. He has also served on multiple international medical mission trips in North and Central America and provides tactical emergency medical support for the Georgia State Patrol and Rome SWAT teams, including two details for the President of the United States.
Baccalaureate will take place Friday, May 12, at 7 p.m. in Morris Chapel. Commencement will be held Saturday, May 13, at 9:30 a.m. on the Chapel Lawn. In the event of rain, it will be held at 10:30 a.m. in the Huffman Athletic Center. Darlington will stream both events on YouTube.
