Two students from Bainbridge Island have earned degrees at Tulane University.

Tulane University awarded degrees to nearly 2,800 graduates on May 20, 2017 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

Spencer Englin earned a bachelor’s degree in science management from Tulane’s A. B. Freeman School of Business.

Tara Wilford earned a bachelor’s degree in science management from Tulane’s A. B. Freeman School of Business.

The ceremony’s keynote speaker was actress Helen Mirren, an Oscar, Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress known for her support of humanitarian efforts. Mirren also received an honorary degree along with jazz great Branford Marsalis, civil rights activist Diane Nash and social psychologist Shelley Taylor.

Class members were honored at the ceremony, which included all the pompand circumstance of a traditional commencement but with a New Orleans twist, including herald trumpets, and a second-line jazz procession. Music was provided by Dr. Michael White’s Original Liberty Jazz Band; Marsalis and his father, pianist Ellis Marsalis; jazz singer Topsy Chapman and her daughter Yolanda Windsay, a Master of Liberal Arts degree recipient; and the Tulane a capella group Green Envy.

Tulane University is one of the nation’s leading educational and research institutions. Founded in 1834 in New Orleans, Tulane has 10 schools and colleges offering degrees in architecture, business, law, liberal arts, medicine, public health and tropical medicine, the sciences and engineering, and social work.