Highly acclaimed journalist Ray Suarez to address UMass Dartmouth undergraduates

Ray Suarez, the senior correspondent for The NewsHour, who has spent more than a quarter century in journalism covering local, national, and international stories, will address UMass Dartmouth’s 2008 undergraduate commencement exercises.

Due to the rapid enrollment growth of the campus undergraduate and graduate students will be receiving their degrees at different ceremonies for the first time. Approximately 350 graduate students will receive their degrees on Saturday, May 24 and 1,200 undergraduates will receive degrees on Sunday, May 25.

During the undergraduate ceremony in the Vietnam Veterans Peace Memorial Amphitheater honorary degrees will be awarded to:

* New Bedford native and Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs and wife Joan Jacobs, who have been generous supporters of college scholarships for New Bedford students and supporters of numerous other educational and arts-related causes.

* Southcoast Hospitals Group CEO Ronald Goodspeed, who recently co-authored What If…? A Survival Guide for Physicians, a book intended to help medical students, residents and physicians successfully handle situations traditionally not covered by medical education and training.

* Retired UMass Dartmouth Dean of Students Donald Howard who spent more than 40 years at the university and was instrumental in building student government and leadership structures, student publications, the student judiciary system, student-run activity fee disbursement systems, the theater company, and the lecture series.

The graduate student ceremony will be built around three speakers: an innovator external to the campus, a graduate alumnus/a innovator, and a graduate student.

The address by the external innovator will be delivered by Dr.Onesky Aupont, a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Medical School who is a key leader of the Massachusetts arm of the National Children’s Study, the largest study to be conducted in the United States to assess the effects of environmental and genetic factors on child and human health.

Also speaking at the graduate commencement will be Yong Zhang, chief operating officer of Salary.com, a Massachusetts-based company that provides companies with the tools to “manage and inspire their most important asset – their people.” Mr. Zhang received graduate degrees in engineering and physics from UMass Dartmouth.

Speaking from a graduate student perspective will be Master of Fine Arts candidate Jennifer Ling Datchuk.

“Commencement 2008 at UMass Dartmouth is going to feature a diverse array of people who have had, and continue to have, an enormous impact on the lives of others,” Chancellor Jean F. MacCormack said. “This will be a celebration of the power of education and innovation to strengthen our Commonwealth, nation, and world; and a challenge to the Class of 2008 to set a new and even higher standard of global engagement.”

More on Ray Suarez

Mr. Suarez, also known for his work as host of NPR’s Talk of the Nation, wrote the book The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration ( Free Press ), and has contributed to several others, including Brooklyn ( Workman, 2001 ), Saving America’s Treasures ( National Geographic, 2000 ), Las Christmas ( Knopf, 1998 ), and About Men ( Poseidon, 1986 ). His latest work is The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America, an examination of the tightening relationship between religion and politics. His essays and criticism have been published in The News York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, among other publications.

Mr. Suarez shared in NPR’s 1993-94 and 1994-95 duPont-Columbia Silver Baton Awards for on-site coverage of the first all-race elections in South Africa and the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, respectively. He has been honored with the 1996 Ruben Salazar Award from the National Council of La Raza, Current History Magazine’s 1995 Global Awareness Award, and a Chicago Emmy Award.

A life member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Mr. Suarez was a founding member of the Chicago Association of Hispanic Journalists. A native of Brooklyn, New York, he lives in Washington, DC with his wife and three children.

Mr. Suarez holds a B.A. in African History from New York University and an M.A. in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago.
Contact Info:
Email: kbeals@umassd.edu Kathy Beals, UMass Dartmouth Office of Public Affairs”*

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