News Archives - 2012

Commencement ceremonies focused on theme of global peace

Augsburg's Commencement ceremonies this academic year—Saturday, May 5, and Sunday, July 1— are organized around the theme of global peace. Augsburg will welcome peacemakers and leaders to challenge and encourage graduates as they begin their lives beyond college.

The May commencement honors the 465 day semester students and 29 physician assistant graduate students who are eligible to graduate. The Marina Christensen Justice Award, recognizing a graduating student who has demonstrated a dedication to community service and has reached out to disadvantaged communities, will be presented. This year's student speaker representing the Class of 2012 will be Kathy DeKrey.

The Commencement speaker on Saturday is Naomi Tutu, daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. An international scholar, speaker, and human rights advocate, Ms. Tutu has served as a development consultant in West Africa and a program coordinator for programs on race and gender and gender-based violence in education at the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town. She has also taught at the Universities of Hartford and Connecticut and Brevard College. In addition, she is a consultant to the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence, founded by renowned author Riane Eisler and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Betty Williams, and the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Both Tutu and Bishop Zephania Kameeta, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia, will receive honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees at Saturday's Commencement ceremony. Serving as a pastor and then as deputy speaker of the National Assembly before being ordained Bishop in 2002, Kameeta has been a prominent church leader in the African struggle for independence and an advocate for women and victims of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The Commencement on July 1 honors Weekend College, Rochester, and graduate students in six programs. Master's degree graduates include those in education, leadership, nursing, business administration (MBA) and social work.

 

Friday, May 4, 8 p.m., Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center

The Augsburg Choir performs their Bon Voyage concert before departing for a tour of the West Coast, May 6-17. This concert is free and open to the public

 

May 5 Commencement schedule:

8:45 a.m., Baccalaureate in Hoversten Chapel

11 a.m., Commencement Ceremony in Si Melby Hall

12:30 p.m., Department receptions at various locations on campus

Go to the Commencement website for complete information.