From BGSU OFFICE OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
Bowling Green State University will celebrate its 290th graduation in two ceremonies in the Stroh Center Friday, Dec. 15, and Saturday, Dec. 16.
Commencement for the Graduate College and the colleges of Business; Health and Human Services; Musical Arts; Technology, Architecture and Applied Engineering; and BGSU Firelands will be held at 7 p.m. Friday. The colleges of Arts and Sciences and Education and Human Development will hold commencement at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Addressing the Friday candidates will be BGSU alumna Vandana Pednekar-Magal, who received master’s and doctoral degrees from BGSU. She is professor of journalism and media communication at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. She has served as the director of GVSU’s School of Communications, which houses six academic programs including a master’s program with 1,600 students and 40 full-time faculty.
Addressing the Saturday candidates will be BGSU alumnus Doug Good, who received a Bachelor of Science in computer science in 1990. His career in IT spans 27 years with roles at NCR, Bay Networks and Cisco, where he now serves as vice president of engineering and architectures, Americas Sales. Good is Cisco’s executive sponsor for BGSU and is a supporter of BGSU’s Agile Software Factory.
The December graduating class includes 954 candidates. Among the undergraduates, 56 will be presented associate degrees and 682 bachelor’s degrees. Of those, 142 have received honors for their high grade point averages. The 192 graduate students include 172 candidates for master’s degrees and 20 for doctoral degrees.
BGSU students come from all around the world. This graduating class includes 71 international students representing 17 countries. There is also a wide range in overall age, with degree candidates from 18 to 60.
At the ceremonies, the University will present honorary degrees to C. Raymond Marvin of McLean, Virginia, and Allen Schmidthorst of Cincinnati.
Marvin earned a bachelor of arts degree in liberal arts from Bowling Green State University in 1960. After graduation, he served as the assistant director of the Bureau of Competition for the Federal Trade Commission. He was a captain in the U.S. Air Force and a Judge Advocate. He worked with a private law firm in Cleveland before being named an assistant Attorney General of Ohio. Marvin also served as the executive director and general counsel for the National Association of Attorneys General. In the late 1990s, his career expanded into business ventures. In 2010, he created the Ray Marvin Leadership Summit, designed to recognize students for their leadership each year.
Early in his business career, Schmidthorst owned and operated McDonald’s restaurants throughout Ohio and was the largest licensee in the state. He then entered the hotel industry and began operating the Holiday Inn brand. While Schmidthorst has been successful in the hotel development business, he has also been very committed to supporting the community in which he lives and is recognized for his economic development initiatives. He and his wife, Carol, provided a leadership gift for the University’s convocation center, the facility now named the Stroh Center. The Schmidthorst Pavilion is named in recognition of his significant gift.
