Two graduates of programs offered through TELETECHNET were recognized as Outstanding Scholars at the university's graduation ceremonies last month.

Both earned their degrees without ever setting foot on the Norfolk campus.

Shawn Sawyer, 32, of Virginia Beach, was named the outstanding student from the Darden College of Education. He began attending classes at the New River Community College in Dublin, Va., and completed his master's degree in human services counseling by taking classes at the old Virginia Beach Center on Little Neck Road.

A native of Creswell, N.C., Sawyer moved to southwestern Virginia when his wife, an Old Dominion alumna, began attending graduate school at Virginia Tech. He enrolled at New River after discovering that neither Tech nor Radford offered the type of counseling degree he wanted. Sawyer works as a counselor in the independent living program of Tidewater Regional Group Home Commission.

John M. White of Springfield, Va., was honored as an Outstanding Scholar from the College of Business and Public Administration. Instead of traveling to Norfolk for the December commencement program, he took part in an interactive graduation ceremony broadcast from Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, where he attended classes.

White, 62, a self-employed tax accountant and a longtime employee of the U.S. State Department and the Foreign Service, earned his bachelor's degree in business administration.

Retired in 1990 after 33 years of service in hot spots including Russia, Vietnam and El Salvador, White graduated with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

He is among the first of Old Dominion's biannual outstanding scholars to earn a degree via TELETECHNET.