Some 450 participate in 15th December Commencement Exercises Tuesday (12/16)

Chancellor Howard Cohen commended some 450 graduates at Purdue University Calumet Fall Commencement Exercises Tuesday evening (12/16) for learning “to be smart optimists.”

Explaining, Cohen told the graduates at Purdue Calumet’s 15th annual December graduation, “Smart optimists position themselves in categories that improve their chances of success. . . Smart optimists prepare themselves for the opportunities they believe are just around the corner. . . To be a smart optimist, continue to build your assets.”

The December graduating class is comprised of 651 individuals—525 fall graduates and 126 from last summer. The fall graduates are claiming 54 associate degrees, 373 baccalaureate degrees and 98 master’s degrees. The summer graduates earned 10 associate degrees, 57 baccalaureate degrees and 59 master’s degrees.

Purdue Calumet 2007-08 Outstanding Teaching Award recipient Jose Pena, an assistant professor of Civil Engineering Technology, also addressed the graduates.

“Your paths may be full of challenges, but you are not foreign to those, and the fact that you are here shows that you know how to face them,” he said. “The new challenges must be seen as opportunities for improvement, as tempering of character, as chances to get better and more effective solutions.”

Offering the traditional "response" on behalf of the December Class of 2008 was Hammond native and Cedar Lake resident Sarah Parrish.

“Let us not look at the years we’ve spent here as a series of accomplishments, but as a series of gifts that we must share with others,” the 25-year-old graduate in biotechnology and aspiring university professor/researcher said.

This December class increases to more than 41,000 the number of degrees granted at Purdue Calumet.

News Release Date: December 16, 2008