UA to award degrees to more than 1,260 students this weekend

President Matthew J. Wilson will address Fall 2017 degree candidates and recognize summer graduates at three ceremonies on Saturday, Dec. 16, where 1,300 degrees will be awarded to more than 1,260 fall candidates.

The 1,268 students who are soon-to-be alumni hail from 23 states and 25 countries. The group includes 42 candidates for doctorate degrees, 22 for Juris Doctor degrees, one for a Master of Laws degree, 238 for master’s degrees, 826 for bachelor’s degrees and 139 candidates for associate degrees. 

A total of 714 summer alumni were awarded their degrees at the conclusion of the Summer 2017 semester, and were invited to attend the fall commencement.

There are a number of inspiring stories involving members of the Fall 2017 class, including:

Dener dos Santos is the student speaker for the 6 p.m. ceremony. He will receive bachelor’s degrees in marketing management and sales management. A Williams Honors Scholar and a tri-lingual native of Brazil, dos Santos is a Distinguished Scholar Athlete and member of the men’s soccer team that earned a spot in this year’s College Cup. Because of his ambition for a possible business start-up – a soccer exchange program in Catalonia, Spain, – dos Santos is described by his professors as “a role model for others.”

Rebekah Rose has studied to become an intervention specialist so she can work with special education students in schools with mild to moderate disabilities. A Williams Honors Scholar in the LeBron James Family Foundation College of Education, Rose studied Caribbean educational systems in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Haiti for her honors project. She added a personal perspective to her project after visiting and working in Haiti on two different visits through her church. There, Rose was able to observe children and adults with congenital or acquired disabilities in orphanages, foster care and other settings. One of Rose’s professors said she has “distinguished herself from other students.”

Daphne Fecheyr Lippens is UA’s and the world’s third student to graduate with Ph.D-level training in biomimicry. A rapidly growing field, biomimicry involves finding answers to engineering problems by studying nature. The main objective of Lippens’ research, needed to complete the five-year curriculum, was to find an environmentally and economically appealing use of waste chicken eggshells by turning them into valuable UV-additives, which can be used to protect against photodegradation. UA’s Integrated Bioscience program is the only one in the world offering Ph.D. training in biomimicry.

There will be three commencement ceremonies at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall — at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. 

The 10 a.m. ceremony features candidates from the following:

• Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences 
• College of Engineering 
• College of Health Professions 
• U.S. Army ROTC Cadet Commissioning

Candidates presented at the 2 p.m. ceremony will be:

• Graduate degrees — all colleges 

The 6 p.m. ceremony spotlights:

• College of Applied Science and Technology
• College of Business Administration
• The LeBron James Family Foundation College of Education
• Wayne College

More details are available on the Graduation website online. 

Media contacts: Alex Knisely, O: 330-972-7429, or C: 330-815-4049, or aknisely@uakron.edu, or Dan Minnich, O: 330-972-6476, or C: 330-604-1167, or dminnich@uakron.edu.