Rider Celebrates 144th Commencement Ceremonies
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Joyous celebration and proud smiles reflected the sense of festivity and accomplishment at Rider University’s 144th Commencement ceremonies on Thursday, May 14, and Friday, May 15, on the Lawrenceville campus. More than 1,300 graduates of the Class of 2009, including 498 graduate and College of Continuing Studies students on Thursday, and 825 undergraduates on Friday, as well as 138 from Westminster Choir College, joined a distinguished family of some 50,000 Rider University alumni. Westminster celebrated its 80th Commencement activities in The Chapel of Princeton University on Saturday, May 16.
The pride Rider graduates take from earning their degrees is reflected by the entire University community, said President Mordechai Rozanski.
“Our first-class faculty and staff have helped you achieve the goal we had for you when you first arrived at Rider,” Rozanski said to the graduating Class of 2009. “That goal was to help each of you attain the highest quality of academic enrichment and personal growth possible so that as graduates, you can go forth with the knowledge and skills, the independence and self-assurance to lead creative, responsible and gainfully employed lives – lives of limitless possibility.”
Mario Duckett, who received a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies, summa cum laude, from the College of Continuing Studies, was the class speaker at the Commencement ceremony on Thursday night. Duckett, who began as an undergraduate at Rider in 1979, left school in 1984 just three credits shy of his degree before finally returning 23 years later.
“My oldest daughter, Erica, graduates tomorrow from Arizona State University with a degree in education,” said Duckett, who credits the knowledge he first gained as a student with his becoming president of his own software consulting firm. “One of my goals was to graduate before my children and it looks like I made it – by one day!”
Jonathan Chebra, vice president of the Student Government Association and a magna cum laude graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, was the class speaker at the Undergraduate Commencement ceremony on Friday. He said that though he and his fellow graduates travelled different routes to this milestone event, they all now share the common trait of leadership.
“Leadership is a quality that is highly coveted in the professional world, and rightfully so. After all, it is leadership that inspires the courage to do what’s right, the confidence to manage, and the wisdom to seek the truth,” Chebra said. “Yes, our paper degree is important. Yes, academics matter. But more than that, what we have received as graduates of Rider is unquantifiable, intangible and invaluable – and that is the qualities of a leader.”
Honorary degrees were conferred upon Anthony Dickson, the retired president and CEO of New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Co., and Milton Nathaniel Barnes ’77, Liberian ambassador to the United States. A former member of the Rider Board of Trustees, Dickson was elected president and CEO of the NJM Insurance Group in 1991. In 1999, he took on the chairmanship of the newly created NJM Bank which, by the close of 2008, had deposits of $410.0 million and assets of $531.3 million.
A native of Liberia, Barnes was appointed ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations from the Republic of Liberia in 2006, and, more recently, was named the ambassador to the United States in September 2008. Barnes, a 1977 graduate of Rider University, also served as Minister of Finance for Liberia. Before leaving his post in 2002, he became the chief architect of Liberia’s fiscal program, overseeing and implementing a new tax code for the nation. Dickson and Barnes also gave the Commencement Addresses at their respective ceremonies.
Nigel Redden, director of the Lincoln Center Festival and the general director of the Spoleto Festival USA, delivered the Commencement Address at the Westminster Choir College Commencement ceremony on Saturday, where American organist, improviser and composer Gerre Hancock was awarded the honorary Doctor of Music.
Hancock, a professor of Organ and Sacred Music at the University of Texas at Austin, has been called the finest organ improviser in America and has been heard in recital in many cities throughout the United States and worldwide.
Daniel Beckwith, assistant professor of voice at WCC, gave the Charge to the Graduating Class.
In addition to the conferral of degrees, the Rider University Awards for Distinguished Teaching, selected annually by the University Honors Council from nominations submitted by Rider students, faculty and academic administration, were presented to Dr. Michael Curran, professor of Teacher Education, and Dr. Joel Phillips, professor of Composition and Music Theory at Westminster Choir College.
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