Published: May 05, 2007 11:44 pm            

More than 1,800 graduate from Indiana State

TERRE HAUTE — More than 1,800 students graduated from Indiana State University on Saturday, many of whom took part in a two-hour graduation ceremony at Hulman Center

“You are now and forever a Sycamore,” ISU president Lloyd W. Benjamin told the assembled graduates after all the degrees had been awarded. He asked the approximately 900 students who took part in the 136th ISU graduation ceremony to continue to support their university as alumni.

“Our association with the university does not end today,” said Jenna Schnieders, president of the ISU Student Alumni Association.

In all, ISU awarded 1,380 undergraduate degrees, 446 master’s degrees, 10 educational specialist degrees and 41 doctoral degrees, according to ISU media spokeswoman Paula Meyer.

Most students taking part in the graduation were from Indiana; however, several other states and countries were represented, including England, France, Ivory Coast, United Arab Emirates and South Korea.

One student who traveled thousands of miles to take part in the graduation ceremony was Daniel Lucky, a nontraditional nursing student from Modesto, Calif. Lucky, one of two men graduating from the school of nursing this spring, took all of his ISU core nursing courses online and had never been to Indiana prior to coming here this weekend with his wife, Dianna, he said.

“They really take good, good care of you,” Lucky said of the College of Nursing faculty he worked with as a student. Apart from his online courses, Lucky and other online students in the nursing program are required to take their clinical studies courses at accredited health care facilities, ISU officials said.

Lucky, 37, is already a registered nurse and started his own vocational college, Abrams College, in 1994 and serves as its president. The college started with Lucky teaching students very basic nursing skills out of the waiting room in a doctor’s office, he said. The college now graduates around 2,000 students each year, Lucky said.

“I like the holistic side of [nursing],” Lucky said. “I like to spend a lot of time with patients.”

Lucky, who begins an ISU master’s program later this month, also surprised ISU officials by donating $25,000 to the school to set up a scholarship program to assist male nursing students, ISU officials said.

“I want to help men in nursing stay in the field and continue their education,” Lucky said. Fewer than 7 percent of nurses are men, Lucky said. Encouraging more men in the nursing profession would help alleviate a critical nursing shortage in the U.S., he said.

ISU also awarded two honorary degrees Saturday.

The university awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree to nursing pioneer Loretta C. Ford and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree to outgoing Ivy Tech Community College president Gerald Lamkin.

“Intelligence is not enough,” said Jonathan Clark, a finance major and the commencement’s student speaker. He encouraged his fellow graduates to continue their education and to always “temper knowledge with wisdom and character.”

ISU awarded six students, each of whom maintained a perfect 4.0 grade-point average during their time at the university, the Hines Memorial Medal. These students were Megan Rochelle Anderson, an English major from Knox; Sarah L. Engle, a political science and legal studies major from Terre Haute; Gabrielle M. Gerhardt, a psychology major from Marshall, Ill.; Linda R. Kemper, a mathematics education major from Valparaiso; Kaitlin A. Korosi, an accounting major from Batesville; and Kristin L. Leistner, a speech-pathology major from Holland.

The university also granted four Rankin Memorial Distinguished Senior Awards to Megan Rochelle Anderson of Knox, Rachael Chase of Terre Haute, Andrea Nicole Clifford of Hillsdale and Brent Allan Pulliam of Robinson, Ill.

In addition to the granting of ISU degrees, one Michigan State University doctoral degree was also awarded during the ceremony. ISU President Benjamin conferred the MSU doctoral degree on Doug Keiser, the associate director of bands at ISU. Keiser missed his commencement ceremony in Michigan to help direct the ISU Commencement Band during Saturday’s ceremony, Meyer said.

ISU officials estimated that about 7,500 people filled Hulman Center to watch the ceremony. Benjamin asked parents, friends and family of graduates to be as quiet as possible when students’ names were read; however, by the end of the two-hour ceremony, many cheering friends and families were having trouble containing their enthusiasm.

Finally, at around 4:15 p.m., two hours after the ceremony began, Benjamin told the assembled graduates they could shift the tassels on their graduation caps from the right side to the left. Cheers and camera flashes filled the arena.

After the ceremony, the crowd of thousands stood in small groups all around the outside of Hulman Center. Graduates posed for pictures while friends and relatives looked on.

“I made it,” was written in glittery letters on the top of one happy graduate’s cap. And on the cap next to hers another message read simply, “see ya!”

Arthur Foulkes can be contacted at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.

        

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