Rider University’s 148th Commencement Activities Begin Today

Rider University and the Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton will celebrate three distinct Commencement 2013 ceremonies over the course of two days, May 16 and 17, and will confer a total of 1,456 bachelor’s and master’s degrees to students. The University will also present three honorary doctorates, one at each ceremony.

Here are some fun facts about this year’s graduation.

• This year’s graduates hail from 23 states and 14 nations.
• 6 percent of graduates competed for Rider as student-athletes.
• For the first time, Rider will award the master’s degree in Applied Psychology.
• Rider’s School of Education is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
• Identical twins Cherisse Williams ’13 and Cherissia Williams ’13 will become the first set of identical twins to graduate from Westminster Choir College.

A Green Graduation

For the fourth year in a row, Rider and Westminster Choir College are using GreenWeaver caps and gowns, made from 100 percent, post-consumer recycled plastic bottles, to robe all students for Commencement 2013 exercises. Eco-friendly GreenWeaver gowns are made of fabric spun from molten plastic pellets, producing a comfortably soft fabric that literally turns trash into keepsakes. Each gown represents about 23 bottles.

Produced by Oak Hall Cap & Gown of Salem, Va., the GreenWeaver will be used by approximately 100 colleges and universities this year. GreenWeaver is not biodegradable—Oak Hall vice president Donna Hodges maintains that caps and gowns should be keepsakes for a lifetime—but the fabric is easily recycled into other products, including fabric fill for coats. Oak Hall estimates that approximately 521,000 graduating students will wear GreenWeaver caps and gowns this year, and that the company has diverted about 12 million plastic bottles from landfills.

Rider is one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the United States and Canada, according to The Princeton Review. The renowned education services company selected Rider for inclusion in the newly released, fourth annual edition of its free downloadable book, The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2013 Edition, which was released in April.

Can’t Make it? Listen or Watch Live!

Rider’s campus radio station, 107.7 FM, The Bronc, will air all three Commencement ceremonies live. Live audio broadcast of Thursday’s Graduate/CCS ceremonies begins at 5 p.m. Live audio broadcasts of Friday’s undergraduate Commencement and Westminster Choir College ceremonies will begin at 9:30 a.m. and 3:15 p.m., respectively.

Live streaming video of Thursday’s graduate and College of Continuing Studies ceremonies, and Friday’s undergraduate ceremonies, will be available on the Rider University website, http://www.rider.edu.

Commencement Breakdown:

Thursday, May 16
Graduate and College of Continuing Studies Commencement 
5 p.m. on Rider’s Lawrenceville campus
2083 Lawrenceville Road (Route 206 South)

Total receiving diplomas: 404 (262 graduate and 142 College of Continuing Studies)

Honorary Degree Recipient:

Rider will bestow the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters upon Dr. George A. Pruitt, president of Thomas Edison State College (TESC) in Trenton, who has led New Jersey’s only college exclusively for adults since 1982.

During his tenure, TESC continued to serve as a national leader in the assessment of adult and experiential learning and in using technology to deliver innovative higher education programs to adults where they live or work.

Pruitt has been highly valued as a consultant to business and government, as well as within the higher education community. He has served in an advisory capacity to four Secretaries of Education under three United States presidents of both parties, and remains active in the formulation of educational policy nationally and within New Jersey. He has an adult daughter, Shayla, and resides in Lawrenceville with his wife, Pamela.    

Friday, May 17
148th Undergraduate Commencement  
9:30 a.m. on Rider’s Lawrenceville campus
2083 Lawrenceville Road (Route 206 South)

Total receiving diplomas: 917

Honorary Degree Recipient:

Rider will proudly bestow the honorary Doctor of Laws upon John H. Martinson, founder of the philanthropic Martinson Family Foundation (MFF), which supports the development of curricula, the improvement of instructional methods and the enhancement of professional development for K-12 teachers in the critical STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. The MFF funds and guides more than 15 dedicated programs at major universities, including multiple grants to programs at Rider.

MFF and Rider have been partners since 2003, when the foundation began funding teacher training programs at the University’s Science Education and Literacy Center (SELECT) and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Center for Science Teaching and Learning. That support has continued with funding of multiple phases of the CONNECT-ED (CONsortium for New Explorations in Coherent Teacher EDucation) program and other STEM programs.

A past chair of the National Venture Capital Association, Martinson is a member of the NJBIZ Hall of Fame. He was also the inaugural recipient of the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Entrepreneur Award, and was honored by Ernst & Young as a Lifetime New Jersey Entrepreneur of the Year.

Martinson was a Beta Gamma Sigma M.B.A. recipient at Southern Illinois University, where he was later inducted into the SIU Hall of Fame. He also earned a Master of Science in Aeronautics from Purdue University and a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering from the United States Air Force Academy, from which he was selected as the 18th Distinguished Graduate in 2008. After graduating from the USAFA, and experiencing active service in the Air Force, Martinson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Martinson’s wife, Eileen Martinson, is the CEO of Sparta Systems of Hamilton, N.J. They have six adult children and a grandson. Their son, John K. Martinson, earned his M.B.A. from Rider University in 2008.

Friday, May 17
Westminster Choir College’s 84th Commencement  
4 p.m. in the Princeton University Chapel
36 University Place, Princeton

Total receiving diplomas: 135 (62 undergraduate, 67 graduate, and 7 combination bachelor’s and master’s degrees – students completing the Bachelor of Music/Master of Arts in Teaching program.)

Honorary Degree Recipient:

Westminster Choir College of Rider University will proudly bestow the honorary Doctor of Music upon acclaimed bass Paul Plishka. A native of Old Forge, Pa., who also lived in Paterson, N.J., Plishka will also deliver the Commencement address.

Plishka’s extraordinary voice and impeccable artistry combine to make him one of the world’s foremost singers, praised by critics for his smooth, beautifully produced bass and polished dramatic skills. A distinguished American artist, he has become one of the most widely acclaimed and sought-after singers of our time.

After making his formal debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1967 as the Monk in La Gioconda, he became one of the company’s leading basses. He retired from the Metropolitan Opera in 2012 after 46 years and 1,642 performances, placing him at No. 10 on the Met’s official list of most frequent performers, which dates back to the company’s 1883 inception.

His recording of the Verdi Requiem with the Atlanta Symphony and Robert Shaw won a Grammy award for the Best Classical Album of 1988.

The Westminster Symphonic Choir has recorded and performed with Plishka several times, including Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, which they performed with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra at the gala opening of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, which was broadcast on PBS’ Great Performances.

—Rider University