Career journeys commence
CMU graduates moving on to first professional jobs
It's spring commencement weekend at Central Michigan University.
Graduates in five separate ceremonies Friday-Sunday will walk across stages in Warriner Hall and McGuirk Arena and set out on their life's journeys.
Torrie Cox of Grand Rapids, Michigan, is one of them. The information technology major will take a job in cybersecurity with payments industry leader Magic-Wrighter. His CMU experience prepped him for the role.
"I gained so much incredible hands-on experience through my IT job on campus," Cox said.
CMU will award 3,148 degrees and certificates over the three days:
- 2,269 baccalaureate degrees.
- 716 master's degrees.
- 102 doctoral degrees.
- Five specialist degrees.
- 56 graduate certificates.
The first of the five ceremonies, for doctoral graduates, takes place at 4 p.m. Friday in Warriner Hall's Plachta Auditorium. Raymond Cross, president of the University of Wisconsin System, will deliver the commencement address. Other ceremonies and speakers
- International best-selling author and management consultant Subir Chowdhury will speak at the 9 a.m. Saturday commencement for undergraduate and graduate students at McGuirk Arena in the John G. Kulhavi Events Center.
- Sarah Rowley Opperman, retired vice president of global government affairs and public policy at The Dow Chemical Company, will speak at the 1:30 p.m. Saturday commencement for undergraduate and graduate students at McGuirk Arena.
- Joseph Mancewicz, senior software engineer in NVIDIA's Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence group, will speak at the 6 p.m. Saturday commencement for undergraduate and graduate students at McGuirk Arena.
- Darrell Kirch, president and CEO of the American Association of Medical Colleges, will speak at the 1 p.m. Sunday College of Medicine commencement in Plachta Auditorium.
Check CMU social media channels throughout the weekend for scenes from commencement.