HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENT SPEAKS AT COMMENCEMENT
Nearly 400 Manhattanville College students received graduate and undergraduate degrees in two separate outdoor commencement ceremonies on the campus quad May 11 and May 13. The school awarded 300 undergraduate degrees, 100 graduate degrees and 20 doctoral degrees.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY 16), a 2019 graduate of the doctoral program in educational leadership at Manhattanville, made a special guest appearance and said, “Throughout history we have always been in so much conflict with each other because of our differences and who we are,” said Bowman. “But I think the next evolution of human history is about what we have in common. You all have the ability to solve these problems.”
Betty A. Rosa, Ed.D., commissioner of education and president of the University of the State of New York, was awarded an honorary degree, and Linda Pistecchia Kirkpatrick, president of North America at Mastercard,”¯was the keynote speaker at the graduate ceremonies. Kirkpatrick, a board member and 1999 alumna of Manhattanville, also received an honorary degree.
Addressing students at the undergraduate ceremony on May 13 was 1997 alumnus Jason Rivera, Ph.D., associate vice provost of Student Success and dean of University College at Ball State University. Alumni and former Manhattanville trustees Dwight Hilson and Mary Foley Cooper were honored at the ceremony. All three received honorary degrees, with Cooper”™s awarded posthumously and presented to her family, who flew in from California.
In addressing those who earned their master”™s and doctoral degrees, Manhattanville Interim President Louise Feroe, Ph.D., congratulated graduates and urged them to not forget the lessons they had learned at Manhattanville.
Feroe also gave special recognition to Shelley Wepner, Ed.D., retiring as dean of the School of Education after 19 years. Wepner founded the school”™s Changing Suburbs Institute in 2005, which now works with more than 19 school districts to acclimate first-generation students.
Kirkpatrick told graduate students that when she left the college in 1999, she was ready to take on the world. Manhattanville, she said, was a special community where the values she learned helped her excel both as a business leader and as a human being. As president of North America at Mastercard, Kirkpatrick oversees the operations and customer-facing activities in the United States and Canada. Bloomberg Businessweek named Kirkpatrick to the 2020 Bloomberg 50.
“I still remember walking through the doors of historic Brownson Hall for the first time as a bright-eyed freshman; how this place would instill in me the value of community, how it would push me out of my comfort zone, how it would teach me to see the value and worth of everyone around me ”“ lessons that have stayed with me to this day. And so, throughout my career, every time I felt anxious or unsure of myself, I leaned on my experiences at Manhattanville, knowing discomfort would only lead me to the next good thing,”™”™ said Kirkpatrick.
Keynote speaker Rivera told students that his experience at Manhattanville taught him to embrace change and use fear to propel him to greater things. Rivera”™s research explores college completion for Latino and African American male students and how care, capital and community cultural wealth influence student outcomes. His research was used to develop the Achieving the Promise Academy, an academic coaching program created to ensure every student has the assistance, opportunities and tools needed to succeed in college.
“When I graduated nearly 30 years ago, I was the first person of color who was also openly gay to serve as the president of the student government. On my commencement day, I stood on this same stage as I am today, overlooking the quad with Reid Hall as a beautiful backdrop”¦. So in many ways, this is a full circle moment for me.
“Manhattanville prepared me to enter an ever-changing world ”“ it taught me to openly embrace the unknown ”“ to get comfortable in the spaces between certainty and uncertainty ”“ and to meet the complexities of change without fear,” he said.