{"id":257854,"date":"2026-05-04T15:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/257854\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T15:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:52:11","slug":"jacksonville-state-university-awards-riley-green-with-an-honorary-doctorate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/257854\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville State University Awards Riley Green with an Honorary Doctorate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aside from being\u00a0PEOPLE\u00a0Magazine\u2019s \u201cSexiest Country Star<\/a>,\u201d Riley Green has another title: Doctor. The Alabama-born singer-songwriter recently received an honorary doctorate from Jacksonville State University for his contributions to the music industry. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Riley Green Awarded a Doctor of Letters\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the university\u2019s spring commencement ceremony on April 30 at the Pete Mathews Coliseum, Green was one of the “graduates\u201d when he received his Doctor of Letters,\u00a0honoris causa, degree. His alma mater acknowledged his musical accomplishments as well as his contributions to Jacksonville and Jax State. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Board of Trustees,\u00a0Chairman\u00a0Randy Jones, and Country Music Hall of Famer Randy Owen from the group Alabama conferred Green\u2019s honorary doctorate degree. Green was present to receive his honorary degree and to deliver the keynote speech. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Green\u2019s Advice to the Graduating Class\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his speech, Green emphasized the importance of chasing your dreams. The former quarterback said, \u201cSo my advice to the 2026 graduating class is\u00a0grab\u00a0the heavy end. Whatever\u00a0you’re\u00a0doing, whatever it is that you find that\u00a0you’re\u00a0good at\u2014and you will find something\u2014\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0let it get away. Chase it.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jacksonville State President Dr Don C. Killingsworth, Jr. said<\/a> of their famous\u00a0alumnus, \u201cRiley\u2019s story is one our students can see themselves in. He started here, put in the work, took a chance on his path, and built something meaningful. What makes today special is not just what\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0accomplished, but how he has continued to show up for this university and this community. He\u00a0represents\u00a0the\u00a0very best\u00a0of Jax State, and we are proud to recognize both his success and his impact with this honorary doctorate.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Green, who is currently on his Cowboy\u00a0As\u00a0It Gets Tour, recently performed at a sold-out show\u00a0at\u00a0the iconic Bridgestone Arena in Nashville for the first time as a headliner. He is also scheduled to perform<\/a> at the 2026 ACM Awards, where he is nominated for four categories.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aside from being\u00a0PEOPLE\u00a0Magazine\u2019s \u201cSexiest Country Star,\u201d Riley Green has another title: Doctor. The Alabama-born singer-songwriter recently received an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,7516],"class_list":["post-257854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-riley-green"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}