W. P. Carey School to graduate record number of students again

For the second year in a row, a record number of students are graduating from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University in the spring. More than 2,200 students are eligible to receive degrees this month, and many will take the stage to receive their diplomas on May 12 and 13.

“We’re proud to be educating more and more students at the school, while still maintaining the high standards of excellence consistently recognized with Top 30 rankings for our MBA and undergraduate programs,” says W. P. Carey School of Business Dean Robert Mittelstaedt. “Year after year, our faculty and staff members do a tremendous job of changing lives through education.”

Among the students participating in commencement ceremonies in Tempe are 23 professionals flying in from China, from the school’s executive MBA program in Shanghai. More than 100 students will graduate from the Shanghai program this month. The program, currently ranked No. 28 in the world by the Financial Times, educates senior-level executives and government officials in charge of policy-making that can influence and improve the lives of millions of people in China.

This year’s graduate-level convocation in Arizona will be open to a total of about 1,000 students, including about 700 MBA candidates. The event will take place Friday, May 13 at 5 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Arena on ASU’s Tempe campus. The guest speaker will be William E. Keitel, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Qualcomm Inc., one of the world’s leading providers of wireless technology and services. Keitel is a W. P. Carey MBA grad and will receive a Distinguished Achievement Award.

More than 1,200 students are eligible to graduate at the undergraduate convocation Thursday, May 12 at 8 a.m., also at the Wells Fargo Arena. The featured speaker will be Roger Wittlin, an ASU alum with about 25 years of capital markets experience. He is managing director of Silver Lake Financial and will also receive a Distinguished Achievement Award.

The spring 2011 Turken Family Outstanding Graduating Senior Award goes to accounting major Isaiah McCoy. He was named a McCord Scholar, has a 4.0 grade point average, and interned at Deloitte, where he will have a full-time job after he attends and completes the Master of Taxation program at the W. P. Carey School of Business. McCoy helped facilitate Camp Carey and WPC 101 (introductory programs) for other students at the school. He also helped to reestablish ASU’s chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, a business fraternity that connects students to professional accounting firms. He also helped organize a career awareness program for minority high school students that is sponsored by the School of Accountancy, in conjunction with the National Association of Black Accountants. More than 70 percent of the participants wind up attending college and majoring in a business field. McCoy also volunteers at a local church and recreation center and helped design an inventory management database for a local food bank.