HAMMOND — Southeastern students graduating from the College of Business and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences were treated to a special guest speaker on Saturday.

Guest speaker Hayley Arceneaux, a former patient of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, encouraged graduates as they moved on into the next phase of their lives.

Arceneaux, who's originally from St. Francisville, was working at the hospital as a physician when she was asked to be part of SpaceX's Inspiration4 crew. 

Inspiration4 was the first all-civilian orbital mission, launching in September of 2021, allowing the crew to orbit the planet for three days before returning to Earth. The endeavor raised $250 million for St. Jude and made Arceneaux the youngest American to orbit Earth, the first pediatric cancer survivor in space and the first astronaut with a prosthetic leg.