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5,000 students to earn degrees at ASU fall commencement


December 11, 2009

More than 5,000 Arizona State University students will take home a holiday present they worked hard to earn, as they collect their degrees at ASU’s commencement Dec. 17. The ceremony will be at 9 a.m. in Wells Fargo Arena.       

Graduates from all campuses will include about 540 engineers, 1,200 business students, 740 teachers and school administrators, and almost 1,500 in liberal arts and sciences. Top undergraduate majors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are communication, psychology, political science, biological sciences and English.

Also receiving their degrees will be about 730 graduates from the Downtown Phoenix Campus – including a record 401 from the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, 94 journalists and 234 from the College of Public Programs.

Individual colleges and schools also will have their own smaller convocation ceremonies, spread out over Dec. 17-18.

Among the graduates will be Chris Armenta, who is graduating summa cum laude in social work though he became blind five years ago; Desislava Rountree, an immigrant from Bulgaria who is realizing her dream of an ASU degree in business, also summa cum laude; and Sean Coleman, an honors engineering student who started his own company to match small businesses with students for freelance projects and part-time jobs. 

Kristen Boyer, a biology major, and Brittany Collins, majoring in women and gender studies, will receive Moeur Awards from the ASU Alumni Association for graduating with 4.0 grade-point averages, with all their coursework taken at ASU. Both are in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

For a convocation schedule and more information on fall commencement activities, go to graduation.asu.edu/ceremonies/fall2009.

The commencement ceremony will be broadcast live on the Web at live.asu.edu.

Parking during commencement and convocation ceremonies is free in most permit lots, with the exception of reserved spaces and carpool stalls. Visitor lots and meters will continue to require payment. A map of the Tempe campus with parking locations can be found at asu.edu/map.

Media contact:
Sarah Auffret
(480) 965-6991
sauffret@asu.edu