Penn State Behrend to Confer 257 Degrees
Fall Commencement is Friday, December 21
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, will hold its fall 2007 commencement ceremony for 257 students on Friday, December 21, in the college’s Junker Center.
The ceremony begins at 6:00 p.m. and will confer 10 associate, 209 baccalaureate, and 38 graduate degrees.
John Beaumont, professor of engineering and program chair for the college’s undergraduate degree in plastics engineering technology, will give the commencement address.Beaumont is a former Erie Manufacturing Society Person of the Year and Society of Plastics Engineers’ Engineer of the Year, and in 2007 was named a Fellow in the Society of Plastics Engineers. In addition to his academic position, he is founder and president of Beaumont Technologies, Inc., an Erie-based company that develops, licenses and markets patented polymer melt-rotation technologies that currently are used in 20 countries.
Beaumont also is author of two books related to plastics injection molding, one of which has just been reprinted in a second edition.
Also speaking at the ceremony will be Kurt F. Buseck, chair of the Penn State Behrend Council of Fellows, and Robert D. Metzgar, a Penn State Behrend alumnus and member of the Penn State Board of Trustees, who provides authorization to confer degrees.
The college’s four student marshals are Jonathan Lee Curtis, a business economics major from Lower Burrell, Pa., for the Sam and Irene Black School of Business; John Adams Lowrey III, a mechanical engineering technology major from Saxonburg, Pa., for the School of Engineering; Jordan Tyler Gilmore, a communications and media studies major from Erie, for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences; and Jesse Miller Stimpson, a mathematics major from Wattsburg, for the School of Science. Following the commencement program, all graduates and their guests are invited to attend a reception in Junker Center.
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, offers 32 baccalaureate, six associate, four pre-professional and two graduate degree programs with 22 minors to 4,400 students. Focused on providing a student-centered environment, Penn State Behrend is the link that connects its students to a major research and land-grant institution on a campus enriched by more than 110 clubs and organizations, 21 NCAA varsity teams, 19 intramural sports and modern facilities.