Bellarmine University will confer 915 degrees — 632 undergraduate and 283 graduate or doctoral — during two commencement ceremonies at Freedom Hall May 13.
Commencement for undergraduates will take place at 10 a.m., while a ceremony for graduate students will start at 2 p.m, according to an announcement from the university.
Forty-one students, who are affiliated with the U.S. military, including 21 veterans, will receive degrees — the largest group to do so in Bellarmine’s history.
Among the graduates, this year are those who’ve earned degrees through one of Bellarmine’s newest offerings — the Degree Completion Program, designed for adult students with some previous college credits. These students earned degrees in communication, organizational leadership and information technology.
Also among the graduates is Ally Tripure, an exercise science major who will participate in Pedal the Pacific, a 1,700-mile bike ride from Seattle, Wash., to San Diego, Calif., to raise awareness of sex trafficking, according to the announcement.
During the undergraduate ceremony, Father Clyde Crews will be honored with the Msgr. Alfred F. Horrigan Medal. Father Crews, a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville, will celebrate his 50th anniversary of priesthood later this month. He is a 1966 Bellarmine graduate and has served in “numerous roles in his long career at the university, including historian-in-residence, director of the Merton Center, chairman of the Theology Department, academic dean, professor and archival coordinator,” according to the announcement.
Honorary degrees will be presented to Nicholas Carosi, a 1969 graduate, his wife Virginia Osborne Carosi, a 1970 graduate, and Mary Gwen Wheeler.
Wheeler, a policy consultant and strategist who works on increasing access to education, will deliver the undergraduate commencement speech.
During the graduate program commencement, an honorary degree will be given to Dr. Mark Lynn and his wife Cindy Lynn. Dr. Lynn, a Bellarmine Trustee, will be the commencement speaker.
The ceremonies will be live-streamed at https://www.bellarmine.edu/academicaffairs/commencement/.
