Spokane commencement to honor its 17th Class

SPOKANE – Washington State University Spokane will celebrate the accomplishments of 437 graduates when diplomas are handed out at the INB Performing Arts Center on Friday, May 4.

This will be the final Spokane Commencement presided by V. Lane Rawlins, WSU’s ninth president, as he approaches his retirement date. The commencement program begins at 2 p.m. and includes graduates of the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing and some programs of Eastern Washington University.

The ceremony will honor 203 students earning undergraduate, degrees in architecture, business administration, exercise physiology and metabolism, interior design, landscape architecture, nursing, professional development and social sciences.

The graduating class includes 145 students receiving baccalaureate degrees in nursing from the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing and its consortium partners Eastern Washington University, 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.

The master’s and doctoral degrees being awarded at this ceremony total 234. Of these students, 17 will receive a master of nursing degree and 94 will receive a doctorate in pharmacy. Students earning their master’s and professional degrees have studied the disciplines of education, pharmacy, architecture, criminal justice, exercise science, engineering and technology management, health policy and administration, interior design, landscape architecture, nursing, speech and hearing sciences, and teaching. This total includes 17 students who are receiving the post-graduate school psychology certification from WSU and EWU and another 16 students who studied in the joint WSU-EWU program will be granted their master’s degrees in communication disorders.

Senator Chris Marr will serve as the commencement speaker. Marr is serving his first term as senator for the 6th District in Spokane, following 20 years of civic involvement in public policy and state and local politics.
 
Until he ran for the Senate, Marr was president of the Foothills Auto Group, which operates Lincoln Mercury, Mazda, Acura and Honda dealerships in the Spokane area. He also served on the Board of Regents of Washington State University and on the Board of Governors of the Washington State University Foundation. He formerly chaired the Board of Empire Health Services and Inland Northwest Health Services as well as the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Washington State Transportation Commission (the governing board of the Washington State Department of Transportation), and has served as president of the Spokane New Car Dealers Association.
 
Marr is the vice chair of the Senate Transportation Committee and also serves on the Senate Health & Long-Term Care Committee, the Senate Human Services & Corrections Committee, and the Senate Water, Energy & Telecommunications Committee.
 
This will be a special day for all of these graduates, but it will also be a day in the history books for the College of Education. For the first time in Spokane, they will be awarding Doctor of Education degrees. Three candidates will be honored—one of which is the student speaker—Irene Gonzales.

Gonzales, the only one of five siblings in her family to ever step onto a college campus, will celebrate the completion of her doctoral degree as she speaks on behalf of the 2007 graduating class. Originally from Walla Walla but now a resident of Spokane, Gonzales is now the executive director of Teaching and Learning Services for the Spokane School District. She received her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from WSU, her master’s in Educational Policy and Management from the University of Oregon and entered the Doctor of Education program shortly after completing the field-based superintendent certification program at WSU Spokane.

“Graduating with this doctorate is still a dream for me, and you can only imagine how significant this is to my family,” said Gonzales. “I hope to one day be a superintendent, and to be role model for other women and Latinos.”

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