IUP will hold commencement ceremonies for 1,722 graduates on Friday, May 6, and Saturday, May 7, at the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex. Students graduating in May and August are eligible to participate in the ceremonies.
The ceremony for students graduating with a master’s or doctoral degree is Friday, May 6, at 7:00 p.m.
Undergraduate ceremonies will be held Saturday, May 7, at 9:00 a.m. for students in the College of Health and Human Services and the John J. and Char Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and at 2:00 p.m. for students in the College of Arts and Humanities, the Eberly College of Business, the College of Education and Communications, and the University College.
Of the invitations to students to receive degrees at the May ceremonies, there are 1,195 bachelor’s degrees, 426 master’s degrees, 89 doctoral degrees, and 12 associate degrees. Of the bachelor’s degree applicants, 702 qualify for Latin honors with a grade point average of 3.25 or above.
Total graduates by college are 176 from the College of Arts and Humanities; 206 from the Eberly College of Business; 158 from the College of Education and Communications; 398 from the College of Health and Human Services; 245 from the Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics; 24 from the University College; and 515 from the School of Graduate Studies and Research.
IUP President Michael Driscoll will preside over all of the ceremonies. All students participating in May commencement ceremonies will be recognized by name and congratulated on stage.
John Ninosky Sr., a 1993 graduate of IUP and former president of the IUP Alumni Association Board of Directors, will offer greetings from the alumni association during the graduate ceremony. Tonya Hsiung, a 2000 bachelor’s degree and 2003 master’s degree recipient and president of the IUP Alumni Association Board of Directors, will offer greetings from the alumni association at the undergraduate ceremonies.
The May 6 graduate ceremony speaker is Abir Ward, a student in the English/Composition and Applied Linguistics PhD program.
Ward, a native of Monrovia, Liberia, and a daughter of Lebanese parents, is multinational and multilingual, having lived on three continents before the age of 20. She taught at the Lebanese American University, where she started the annual creative writing workshops and poetry competition, and at the American University of Beirut (AUB), where she led the editorial work of Pages Apart, a 700-page academic reader used for teaching English. In 2019, she founded 2Rāth, a social justice initiative engaged in the politics of representation. 2Rāth helps students create articles on Wikipedia about notable Arab women, and its work so far has garnered over 20 million views. Abir just accepted a teaching position at Boston University, where she will work on social, linguistic, and environmental justice initiatives.
Distinguished University Professor Alida Merlo, professor of criminology and criminal justice, will present the commencement address at the undergraduate and graduate ceremonies.
Bryony Tilzey, an environmental engineering major from Greensburg with a minor in mathematics, will be the student speaker for the 9:00 a.m. undergraduate ceremony. A 2018 graduate of Greater Latrobe High School, she is the daughter of Louise Henry and Colin Tilzey of Somerset, England.
Kiara Williams, a student from Canonsburg in the Early Childhood Education and Special Education/Urban Track program, will be the student speaker for the 2:00 p.m. undergraduate ceremony. Daughter of Maria and Enrico Williams, she is a 2018 graduate of Canon-McMillan High School. She is the recipient of the 2022 Development of Urban Elementary Teachers Scholarship, the College of Education and Communications Dean’s Scholarship, and the 2021 Dean’s Leadership Award for Kappa Delta Pi, the education honor society, for which she has served as diversity chair. She has been a four-year participant in IUP’s Creating Higher Standards program, organized to provide guidance and motivation to students, serving as president and a leader-coordinator for three years. She also helped to create the Special Olympics Club at IUP and served as its fundraising chair.
A total of 234 graduates, honored with crimson and gray philanthropy cords, contributed $5,357 to the senior class gift.
Mikayla Dokos, a mathematics and mathematics education graduate from Homer City, will present the Senior Class Gift at the 9:00 a.m. undergraduate ceremony.
Dokos, the 2022 recipient of the Aspiring Alumni Award, is the daughter of Michelle and Theodore McCaulley and Phoebus Dokos of Athens, Greece. She is a 2018 graduate of Homer-Center Junior/Senior High School. She is the former president of the IUP Ambassadors, IUP’s student-alumni association, and is currently the copresident of the IUP Math Club. She has been a student worker in the Office of the Vice President for University Advancement and the Development Math office. She has also been a peer leader for Peer-Led Team Learning and is completing her student teaching at Indiana Area Senior High School.
She is the recipient of the Terry Serafini Scholarship for Math, the Ida Z. Arms Scholarship, the James A. Boytim Scholarship, and the Mildred M. Reigh Scholarship.
Matthew Hiles, an accounting and economics double major in the Cook Honors College who earned a foreign language (Chinese) certificate, will present the Senior Class Gift at the 2:00 p.m. undergraduate ceremony.
Hiles, of Kittanning, is the son of Amanda and David Hiles and is a 2018 graduate of Armstrong Junior Senior High School. He was a four-year member of the IUP Ambassadors and the Chinese Language and Culture Club and was an Education Abroad peer advisor in the Office of International Education and an economics tutor at the Academic Success Center.
He was the student speaker for the Whitmyre Hall (home to the Cook Honors College) grand opening in 2020 and is a dean’s list student and provost scholar. He received a Cook Achievement Fund scholarship and a Board of Governors Scholarship.
Sixty undergraduate students will be honored for earning a perfect 4.0 grade point average during their studies at IUP.
Designated parking lots near the ceremonies and across the IUP campus will be used for commencement parking at no charge. Parking attendants will direct drivers to available lots and parking spaces in the area.
Complimentary shuttle bus service will be available from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. on May 6 and from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on May 7 to provide transportation from and to the public parking areas.
A parking and shuttle map is available on the commencement website.
Guests who require handicapped (ADA) accessible parking may park in the lot directly in front of the Kovalchick Complex or directly west of the facility. Parking attendants on site will direct drivers to the available spaces in the area. A disability parking placard is required to park in these areas. Drivers are asked to have this placard displayed when arriving on campus.
For the safety of IUP guests and to maintain traffic flow, stopping and drop-off are prohibited along Pratt Drive. Limited accessibility drop-off is permitted in the drive-through circle directly in front of the Kovalchick Complex. Those who have difficulty walking extended distances are asked to use the Indigo shuttle service available in each primary parking lot.
For questions about commencement parking, call the IUP Parking and Visitors Services office at 724-357-8748.