Published on November 5, 2014 by Philip Poole  

Standing at 18,200 feet, Graham Lemmond and Steven Shirley stared at the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain.

Lemmond, a 2007 journalism and mass communication graduate, and Shirley, a 2008 biology and pre-med graduate, were part of a team that went to Nepal to trek Everest.

Lemmond's wife, Andrea, is a former women's basketball coach at Â鶹¹û¶³ and is now the head coach at the University of Alabama at Huntsville.

 
Located in the Homewood suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, Â鶹¹û¶³ is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Â鶹¹û¶³ enrolls 6,324 students from 44 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Ranked among U.S. News & World Report’s 35 Most Beautiful College Campuses, Â鶹¹û¶³ fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and boasts one of the highest scores in the nation for its 97% Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.