John E. Weems Graduate School
In 1983, Meredith began offering master's degrees in business, education and music. Five years later, in 1988, Meredith’s graduate program was named The John E. Weems Graduate School in honor of then-President Weems, who was credited with playing a major role in the establishment of the graduate program. Prior to the launch of the graduate program in 1983, Meredith had awarded several master’s degrees between the years of 1902 and 1911.
Since its inception, graduate studies at Meredith have continued to evolve, largely in response to needs within the community. Meredith’s ESL licensure program was the first in the Triangle, and the College was one of just a few schools in North Carolina to offer a Master of Health Administration in 1998. More recently, in response to the growing need for highly-trained teachers, Meredith launched a new Master of Arts in Teaching, a program designed to prepare men and women who have bachelor's degrees in disciplines other than education to become licensed teachers.
Currently, Meredith offers four master’s degree programs: Master of Business Administration, Master of Science in nutrition, Master of Arts in Teaching and Master of Education. Also falling under the purview of the graduate school are the well-established and highly-regarded Dietetic Internship and Paralegal programs.
About John Weems
John E. Weems served as president of Meredith from 1972 - 1999. He was the sixth president of Meredith. During his twenty seven-year presidency, the size of both the student body and the faculty nearly doubled, Meredith constructed twelve new facilities, and the endowment and reserves grew from $887,000 to $49,500,000. Before coming to Meredith, Weems was a vice-president at Middle Tennessee State.
Naming the graduate school after John Weems was the first time in the history of Meredith College that a school or program had been named for an individual. In describing his reaction to the honor, Weems said, “Nothing the trustees could have done would have pleased me more than this.”