Marquette to celebrate mid-year graduation Sunday, Dec. 14

Event Information:
Date: Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008
Time: 9:30 a.m.
Place: U.S. Cellular Arena
          400 W. Kilbourn Ave.

More than 450 Marquette University graduates will be recognized at the mid-year commencement on Sunday, Dec. 14, at the U.S. Cellular Arena, 400 W. Kilbourn Ave.

The program will begin at 9:30 a.m. and will feature a keynote address by Dr. Steven Goldzwig, professor of communication studies in the J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication, as well as remarks from Marquette President Robert A. Wild, S.J. and featured student speaker Emily Rodier, who is graduating from the Helen Way Klingler College of Arts and Sciences. Graduation events will also include a Baccalaureate Mass at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec.13, at Gesu Church, 1145 W. Wisconsin Ave.

Goldzwig, who will address “The University Education, Change and the Importance of Participation,” is a leading expert in political communication. His research interests include communication and the presidency, as well as cultural values and ethics. Goldzwig’s most recent book, Truman’s Whistle-stop Campaign, was published in 2008. In 2007, he was the recipient of Marquette’s Way Klingler Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities Award, which supported the investigation of the 12 most recent presidents’ civil rights philosophies, rhetorical methods, achievements and legacies in civil rights.

A member of the Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society and the Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society, Rodier will graduate with degrees in Elementary Education and English. She has been active on campus, participating in the College of Education student council, Campus Ministry, intramural sports and Hunger Clean-Up, as well as many other activities and organizations. Rodier has also volunteered with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Urban Connection and Repairers of the Breach Shelter. She completed her student teaching at Neeskara Elementary, a Milwaukee public school. She will continue teaching there through June 2009.

A Minneapolis native, Rodier graduated from Academy of Holy Angels high school in Richfield, Minn.

Media who would like to attend should contact Christopher Stolarski in the Office of Marketing and Communication at 414-288-1988 (office) or 414-235-6060 (cell), or e-mail christopher.stolarski@marquette.edu.