Traditional undergraduate ceremonies began at 10:00 a.m., and degree completion and graduate ceremonies at 6:00 p.m. on the East Hall Green.
Approximately 150 degrees were awarded in the morning and 250 in the evening. The morning address was "Marshmallows, Commencement and the Kingdom" by Karen Cianci, dean of the School of Natural Sciences. Ron Claassen, director of the university Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies, spoke in the evening on "Power, Process and Doing the Right Thing."
Highlights included:
* Perfect grade point average awards to Ericka Statema, psychology, and Meredith Wing, music/mathematics. Robert Jost, psychology, won the Harold Haak Academic Achievement Award.
Presentation of the Nickel Excellence in Teaching Award (NETA) to Roy Klassen, music, and Joe Taylor, special education. Both are retiring from FPU.
Grads, family and friends had the opportunity to make short videos. See them on Youtube at youtube.com/user/whyfpu.
Ceremonies were live-streamed on the Web and viewed in Peru, Japan and Washington state. See ustream.tv/recorded/6773258 (morning) or ustream.tv/recorded/6783531 (evening). Twitter fans can see tweets and photos at #fpugrads.
Posthumous awards to Myoshi Smith, criminology and restorative justice, who died of the H1N1 virus, and Nancy Guzman, liberal arts, who was killed in car accident.
Christian Garza was the youngest guest, having been born the previous day. He and his mother, Nory Garza, were released from the hospital at 2:00 p.m. Saturday so both Christian's parents, Nory and Juan Garza, could receive their degrees in leadership and organizational studies.