Commencement 2015
Posted by Joseph Phillips, Jr. on Tuesday, June 16, 2015 at 6:01 PM PDT
The 2015 Commencement of Seattle University took place on June 14 th . Among the 1700 university graduates were 284 undergraduate and 247 graduate students from the Albers School. The latter group included our first Bridge MBA class, which we launched in September, 2013. Our faculty and staff are very proud of all these students and have high expectations for them. We know they will go out to live the Albers mission -- be exceptional values-driven business leaders committed to the Common Good!
In the undergraduate commencement ceremony, Mark K. Shriver was the honorary degree recipient. Shriver is president of Save the Children Action Network, which works to end child and maternal mortality globally and to improve access to early childhood education in the US. In his remarks to the graduates, Shriver drew upon life of his father, R. Sargent Shriver, and talked about leading a life built around love, faith, and hope.
In the graduate ceremony, the honorary degree recipient was Killian Noe, founder of Recovery Café. Recovery Café serves people recovering from experiences with addiction, mental illness, and homelessness. In her remarks, she reminded graduates of the importance of identifying their gifts and understanding what the gifts of others are, then collaborating to make the best use of everyone's talents. Second, she reminded that shortcomings are ok, and God often has a way of making good use of them if we are open to it. Third, she observed that while we have come a long way, there is still a lot of discrimination and privilege in our society, so there is plenty of work to do "to level the playing field."
We have some really exceptional students in the Albers School, and two received special recognition at graduation. Kim Pugliese received the Paul A. Volpe Award, which goes to the undergraduate student with the strongest academic record. Volpe was the founding dean of the Albers School and served from 1947 to 1966.
Chang "Crystal" Yu received the Jerry A. Viscione Award, which goes to the graduate student with the highest level of academic achievement. Crystal graduated with her Master of Professional Accounting degree. Viscione was dean of the Albers School from 1988 to 1997.
Congratulations to all our graduates in the Class of 2015! We are very proud of you!