John Hope Bryant, Founder and CEO of Operation HOPE, America’s first non-profit social investment banking organization, will address the Atlanta Technical College class of 2014 at its commencement exercises May 16th at 11am. The ceremony will be held at the Atlanta Civic Center..

Operation HOPE, founded during the Rodney King Riots in 1992, operates in 70 U. S. communities, Haiti and South Africa.  The organization has raised more than $500 million and helped to restructure another $300 million in subprime mortgages to empower the poor.

Former U. S. President Bill Clinton described Bryant in his recent bestselling book Giving as “A 41 year-old whirlwind of ideas and action…Lean, intense, focused and completely positive in his belief in the potential of poor people to prosper, with a hand up and not a hand out.”

In 2008, Bryant was appointed by President George W. Bush as vice-chairman of the bi-partisan U. S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, and chairman on the Committee on the Under-served. In 2010, in the backdrop of the global economic crisis and the historic signing of the Financial Modernization Act, President Barack Obama appointed Bryant as a member of the U. S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability.

The author of Love Leadership and Banking on Our Future, Bryant works with HOPE global spokesman Ambassador Andrew Young, bridging civil rights to silver rights.

During the 2014 Commencement, Atlanta Technical College students will be receiving technical certificates of credit, diplomas and associate degrees in business and public service technologies; health and public safety technologies; and industrial and transportation technologies.

Seven programs in the high demand fields of bioscience technology, criminal justice, surgical technology, physical therapy, nursing, dental hygiene and radiologic technology were launched in 2012.  The first cohort of students in these programs will graduate from Atlanta Technical College on May 16.

Additionally, high school students who participated in Atlanta Technical College dual enrollment programs and have completed requirements for technical certificates of credit in their programs of study will graduate and participate in the 2014 commencement ceremony.  Dual enrollment partner schools include Maynard Jackson High, The Perry Center, Mundy’s Mill, Jonesboro High and Hapeville Charter School and Career Academy.

Atlanta Technical College has been a leader in career-focused education and was named the Georgia Technical College of the Year in 2012. For more information on the college and its programs visit www.atlantatech.edu.