My secret weapon

One of the most accomplished graduates this year is Megan Weiss, who had a 4.0 GPA, was the top student in both education and foreign languages, co-delivered an academic paper in South America with a professor, did a great deal of community and plans to volunteer to teach for a year at a Christian Brothers school in Yakima, WA. For year I had sent info about her accomplishments to her hometown paper back in Minnesota but I never heard back from them nor saw any coverage on Mega. So, this year, I unveiled my secret weapon: Megan's mom! She called the paper and left a message and Megan's father spoke to the editor. Initially the editor said he might mention Megan in a community news column, but I pushed for a full story. I sent a release and photo of Megan. I'm curious to see what they print. If it's not enough, I hope Megan's mom makes another call!

So far, so good

As of today's date, 5/20, coverage of La Salle’s commencement exercises included coverage by TV stations WCAU (Channel 10), KYW (Channel 3), CWU (Channel 57), WPHL (Channel 17) and WPVI (Channel 6); KYW newsradio interviewed nursing graduate Eileen Baughan about switching her careers; Philadelphia Daily News columnist Dan Gross reported talk show host Dom Giordano’s son, Luke, was named the top math student.

More to come (I hope).

BTW, we had to do two indoor ceremonies because of the weather. My only regret is that people missed a chance to see how beautiful the campus is right now and how Mario and his first-rate crew worked so hard to make it that way.

Honorary Degree recipient Tim Shriver, CEO of the Special Olympics, gave a very nice speech and the commencement address by senior Patrick Terranova wa one of the best I've heard in my time here.

Check, Double Check, Triple Check

OK, at a ceremony I heard someone tell a neat story about one of our graduates and an internship they did this past summer. I got so excited that I sent the info to a newspaper columnist before I doublechecked it. Well, the paper published it and the information was incorrect. The student is upset and some folks here are upset that we might have endangered our relationship with the organization the student worked for during the internship. Well, the paper has offered to make a correction and I'll remember to never take anything at face value -- again!

Sharing a story

Yesterday's Philadelphia Daily News published an oped by Shayla Morales Robinson, a gradaute of the La Salle Nursing BSN Achieve program, designed for working nurses to earn a degree. Shayla overcame many obstacles to graduate, and wrote a letter of thanks to the School of Nursing for al the help and encouragment she received. One of her professors, Kristen DeLay, sent me the letter, and I thought it might work as an oped. Shayla worked with me on a few drafts and it was published. Kudos to her for not only earning her degree, but she made it a point to stress in the piece that women in abusive relationship can leave and achieve their dreams.

Here's a link to the piece:

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20110519_She_fulfilled_her_dream_of_finishing_nursing_school.html

Another school year is past, and I'm still trying to learn social media. Thanks to two recent grads, Jim and Liz, they might teach this old dog news tricks!

For the record: I did not blog because of the story about athe professor and the lap dancing. I have much I could say on that, but I won't (for various reasons). Suffice to say, when I heard what happened I KNEW it would be a world-wide story; I even thought Jay Leno on teh tonight show would make a reference to it; he didn't, but George Lopez did. So, what do you do when something like this happens? Well, at first, not much: You have to wait until the "process" is complete, i.e. the "investigation." It is still on-going. And the story won't go away: for every action in the situation, there will be a reaction....and people all over the world will know that La Salle and lapdancing went together....

At this year's commencement, we had:

*Brigid Smith, of Sewell, N.J., who will be the fifth generation of her family to graduate from La Salle University. The marketing and management double major is one of more than 30 members of her family who are La Salle alumni.
* Eileen Baughan had a successful career as a trader on Wall Street before starting her family. When her twin son and daughter were born premature weighing a little over a pound each, Baughan was so inspired by the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurses that she promised that she would one day return the favor and become a nurse. Now, the mother of four, including healthy nine-year-old twins, Baughan is receiving her bachelor's degree in nursing.
*Mother and daughter Eileen and Mary Marguerite Behr never imagined graduating from college together. Mary Marguerite will earn a bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education with a minor in American Studies, and Eileen will earn a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. Earlier this month, Eileen was sworn in as the first-ever female Sheriff in Montgomery County.
* Rosemarie Lowe, who is 71, earned a degree in social work. A counselor at Gaundenzia, a drug and alcohol treatment center, she will soon start her master’s degree studies.
An honorary Degree will be presented to Tim Shriver, President and CEO of the Special Olympics. (He is the third member of his family to receive an Honorary Degree from La Salle: his uncle, then Senator and later President John F. Kennedy received one in 1958 as his father, Sargent Shriver, first Director of the Peach Corps, received one in 1970.)
The 1,751 graduates come from 32 states and the District of Columbia and 25 countries.