MET celebrates 40 years at convocation
Verizon Wireless leader Robert Stott addressed graduates
The convocation ceremony for Metropolitan College, held on Sunday evening, May 14, reflected the school’s unconventional educational structure by celebrating its unconventional students.
“She has worn many hats and traveled many paths before finding herself at BU,” Assistant Dean Carl Sessa said of Elizabeth Mortensen (MET’06), who received a bachelor’s degree in marketing management and won MET’s Certificate of Undergraduate Achievement. “Metropolitan College is her fourth school, and marketing management is her fourth major. Her graduation ends a 10-year-long journey and marks a wonderful new beginning.”
More than 1,000 students received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nine programs of study at the college’s convocation ceremony, which took place at 6 p.m. in the Track and Tennis Center on Ashford Street. MET Dean Jay Halfond welcomed the graduates, their friends, and their families to the ceremony, and Robert Stott, president of the New England region for Verizon Wireless, gave the address, reflecting on his own alternative educational path and offering advice on building a career.
“How does a wire technician working under stairways and in closets eventually become the New England regional president for what Business Week has called the best wireless company in the world?” Stott asked. “There were many stops during my own 40-year journey, but I know that it was my pursuit of education, my determination to be the best at whatever job I was doing, and quite frankly, a little luck that allowed me to get to the position I’m in today. And that is why I am so excited for you tonight. This is not your peak or pinnacle — it’s only the beginning.”
The awards for excellence in graduate study went to Xiaokai Shi for actuarial science, Jennifer DiTomasso Jacobsen for administrative science, Marina Wolf Ahmad for arts administration, Anthony King for computer science, Kouichi Komuru and Lena Weekes for applied social science, and Kara Nielsen for gastronomy. Mark Miliotis, a lecturer in the criminal justice program, won the Roger Deveau Memorial Part-Time Faculty Award for excellence in teaching.
The Metropolitan College Alumni Awards went to Edward M. Francis (MET’78), a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board and vice president of space, land, and sea for the aerospace firm Hamilton-Sundstrand, and Leslie Patton (MET’98), a full-time hospice volunteer for HealthCare Dimensions Hospice.