December 2019 Commencement at Michigan State University will include more than 375 graduates of the College of Engineering on Friday and Saturday -- 298 undergraduates, 40 master's and 40 PhDs.
MSU Engineering will celebrate graduation at two ceremonies:
Advanced degrees -- The Advanced Degree Commencement is Friday, Dec. 13, at 3:30 p.m. in MSU's Breslin Center. There will be 40 master's and 40 PhD candidates from the college. The ceremony is 1 1/2 hours long. There are no admission tickets required. No bags or purses allowed (see below).
Vice-Chancellor Tawana Kupe from the University of Pretoria, one of South Africa's top research universities, will speak and accept an honorary doctorate of humanities. Harold Mooney, ecologist and professor in the Department of Biology at Stanford University, will also receive an honorary doctorate of science at the advanced degree ceremony. World-renowned expert on inland fisheries Robin Welcomme will also receive an honorary doctorate of science but is unable to attend the ceremony.
Undergraduates -- The College of Engineering's 298 undergraduates will share graduation services on Saturday, Dec. 14, at 2 p.m. in the Breslin Center with graduates from Agriculture and Natural Resources, Communication Arts and Sciences, Lyman Briggs, Natural Science, and Nursing. The commencement ceremony is two hours long. There are no admission tickets required. No bags or purses allowed (see below).
Saturday's 2 p.m. commencement speaker is Susan Packard, an MSU alumna and co-founder of HGTV and Scripps Networks Interactive. She will receive an honorary doctorate of humanities. Packard earned her bachelor's (1977) and master's (1979) degrees in advertising from MSU, where she was also a member of the Honors College. Packard served as co-founder of Scripps Networks Interactive and assisted in the creation of television networks that have become household names across the country, including CNBC, HGTV, Food Network and DIY Network. As COO of HGTV, Packard helped the network rise to a market value of more than $15 billion, making it one of the fastest-growing television brands in history.
Commencement ceremonies will be live streamed on the commencement website.
Engineering banner
Ryan Simon, a senior in mechanical engineering with a biomedical concentration, will carry the Engineering banner during the commencement processional. Simon is from St. Johns, Michigan.
At MSU, he was part of Tower Guard, a service partner of MSU's Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities. He was also a student manager of computer-aided design for Infrastructure Planning and Facilities. At IPF, he helped maintain floor plans in campus buildings and updated them for renovation or new construction, including FRIB and the apartments and townhouses at 1855 Place.
He also had two internships as a manufacturing engineer - Innotec in Zeeland, Michigan, and at Amway in Ada, Michigan. Following graduation, he has accepted a full-time position at Amway as an operations engineer, where he will help connect Amway's plant operations with its machine shop.
No bags or purses - For the safety of attendees, no bags or purses will be permitted in Breslin Center for any commencement ceremonies. Cameras and camcorders are permitted, but cases are prohibited.
No food or beverages — including bottled water — will be allowed, and this applies to graduates, guests and faculty. Breslin Center will offer a limited concessions menu during the ceremonies. Additional prohibited items include noisemakers, selfie sticks, pets, signs and weapons of any form. Breslin Center is a smoke-free facility.
Metal detectors will screen all attendees, so please plan accordingly for processing.
Twitter users are invited to follow along using #MSUGrad19.
Portions of this story courtesy of MSUToday.