SPOKANE, Wash. — Washington State University Spokane will celebrate its 11th — and largest ever — class of graduates with the Intercollegiate College of Nursing/WSU College of Nursing when diplomas are handed out Friday, May 11, at WSU Spokane’s commencement ceremony. The program begins at 2 p.m. at the Spokane Opera House.
WSU President V. Lane Rawlins will deliver the commencement address. Jolene Spratt, a new graduate with a master’s degree in health policy and administration and ASWSU Spokane president, will serve as student speaker. Spratt has been accepted to the St. Louis University School of Law, one of the top two schools for health law in the country.
WSU Spokane will honor 225 students earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, construction management, engineering management, health policy and administration, nutrition, speech and hearing sciences, and technology management. Some 72 will receive the doctor of pharmacy degree, and six will earn the postgraduate school psychology certification.
Bill Gray, WSU Spokane campus executive officer and dean, announced that the master of technology management, a new graduate business degree, will have its first six graduates from the Spokane program. According to Gray, a number of full-time international students chose the program and campus as their destination, joining working adults who attend part time while continuing to work at such area firms as Avista Corp. and Potlatch Corp.
The graduation also honors 147 students receiving bachelor’s and 16 receiving master’s degrees in nursing from the Intercollegiate College of Nursing/WSU College of Nursing and its consortium partners Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University and Whitworth College.
“Our nursing graduates have enjoyed a 100 percent placement rate in their chosen field of health care for the past several semesters,” said Dean Dorothy Detlor of the nursing college. “Many have multiple professional offers, while others are choosing to return to the college to pursue advanced degrees.”
Fourteen EWU students earning master’s degrees in communication disorders who have studied in the joint WSU-EWU speech and hearing sciences program also will go through the commencement ceremony.
Students being recognized during the ceremony include: Christina Burke, Clinical Excellence Award, Nursing, WSU; M. Louise Collins, Outstanding RN-BSN Award, Nursing, WSU; Amber Dahlgren, Rural Nurse Organization Award, Nursing, WSU/EWU; Marylu Hubbe, Outstanding Graduate Student, Nursing, WSU; Wendy Montgomery, Outstanding Graduate Student, Speech and Hearing Sciences, WSU; Jennifer Pedersen, Outstanding Undergraduate Student, Nursing, WSU; Joel Port, Outstanding Senior in Landscape Architecture, WSU; Heidi Thurman, Outstanding Senior in Interior Design, WSU; and Dixie Weber, Spirit of Nursing Award, WSU/EWU.
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Note to photographers and television assignment editors:
— Faculty will line up on the Opera House stairs in their regalia, and students will pass between them to begin their processional. Faculty will then march into the Opera House led by bagpipers.
— Cougar mascot Butch will pose for pictures with the graduates and their families in the Opera House lobby (about 3:45 p.m.).
— A post-commencement reception will be held at the Riverpoint campus under an outdoor tent, with Butch again available for pictures (about 4 p.m.).
