Washington State University Spokane to Honor 349 Graduates

SPOKANE, Wash. — Washington State University Spokane will celebrate its 15th class of graduates May 6 when diplomas are handed out at 2 p.m. at the Spokane Opera House. The program will include graduates of the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing and some Eastern Washington University programs.

The ceremony will honor 349 students earning undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees in architecture, computer engineering, construction management, criminal justice, engineering management, exercise science, health policy and administration, human nutrition, interior design, landscape architecture, nursing, pharmacy, social sciences, speech and hearing sciences, teaching, and technology management, including 19 who will receive postgraduate school psychology certification from WSU and EWU.

The graduating class includes 73 students receiving baccalaureate degrees in nursing from the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing and its consortium partners EWU, Gonzaga University and Whitworth College. All baccalaureate nursing graduates in Spokane receive joint degrees from WSU and from the institution at which they completed their first two years of study. Eight students will receive a Master of Nursing degree from WSU.

Statewide, a total of 161 undergraduate and graduate students will earn nursing degrees this spring, including 94 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, 38 with a BSN for RNs, and 29 with a Master of Science in Nursing.

Another 13 EWU students earning master’s degrees in communication disorders who have studied in the joint WSU-EWU program will be granted their EWU degrees.

Walking at this commencement ceremony will be Douglas Orr, recipient of the first-ever doctoral degree in criminal justice from WSU. Established in 1941 as the Department of Police Science and Administration, the WSU Criminal Justice Program is the second oldest in the country. Orr, who is a Spokane Police Department detective, received recognition as Officer of the Year in 2003.

The Rev. Stephaine (Stephy) Nobles Beans will serve as the commencement speaker. Rev. Beans is assistant pastor of the Church of Berachah, as well as a published writer, poet and singer. She serves Whitworth College as the coordinator of ministry and multicultural affairs. 

The founder and executive director of a program called “Wings,” a sexual assault and domestic violence educational and awareness program, Rev. Beans has been in prison ministry since 1998. As part of that service, she started a program called “Story Time Telling,” which provides new books and tapes to prisons so that inmates can record themselves as they read children’s stories, then send their children a copy of the tape and book.

Ryan Rieger, who will receive a master’s degree in health policy and administration, will serve as student speaker. He serves as president of the Associated Students of WSU Spokane, and as a member of the Chancellor’s Student Advisory Council. He has received a nationally competitive two-year administrative fellowship at the Portland Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, which he will complete after graduation. Rieger was also selected by the health policy and administration program for one of the competitive full-time U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration Health Administration Traineeships for the past two years.

Notes to photographers and assignment editors:

10 a.m.: Commencement brunch. Visual/audio opportunities include naval commissioning of officers who are graduating from the health policy and administration program and joining the U.S. Navy health services (approx 10:25 a.m.). Graduates to be commissioned (2004-2005) as officers in the U.S. Navy Medical Service Corps include Carlene Kennedy, Diana Loffgren, James Moss, KC Nilsson and Keith Quien.

·         1-1:30 p.m.: Students are arriving for robing; may be able to pick up interviews on the fly.

·         1:30 p.m.-4 p.m.: Students are not available for interviews; robing and ceremony in progress

·         1:55 p.m.: Faculty wearing full regalia will march from the music room (downstairs from main lobby) up the stairs into the main Opera House; bagpipers will play as faculty walk down the aisles in the Opera House.

·         1:55 p.m.: Students begin march into the Opera House across the breezeway, coming from the Northwest Quadrant of the Ag Trade Center; they will follow faculty into the Opera House.

·         Approximately 3:45 p.m.: Cougar mascot Butch comes onto the Opera House stage at the close of the ceremony to lead the recessional off; Butch stands at the door to greet the exiting graduates; great “high five” shots with students and families.

4 p.m.: A post-commencement reception will be held at the Riverpoint campus in the lobby of the Phase I Classroom Building, 668 N. Riverpoint Blvd.

Web sites

WSU Spokane: www.spokane.wsu.edu
WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing. www.nursing.wsu.edu

Graduates poised for success

Students and faculty from a number of programs are available for interview. Contact Barb Chamberlain, 509/358-7527, 509/869-2949 (cell), chamberlain@wsu.edu, to get in touch with sources on any of these high-demand careers:

Pharmacists
Speech-language pathologists
Health care administrators
Construction management
School psychologists
Nurses: Contact Susan Nielsen for specific nursing faculty/student interview opportunities, 509/324-7372, 509/991-9151 (cell), susann@wsu.edu.