More than 1,883 students will receive degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Saturday, May 16, at 9:30 a.m. on the Harkness Field. They represent the next generation of leaders, scientists, entrepreneurs, patent holders, and innovators, in fields ranging from engineering to architecture, from fine arts to science, and from business to the military.

During the Institute’s 203rd Commencement ceremony, Rensselaer will award 621 master’s degrees, 166 doctoral degrees, and 1,147 bachelor’s degrees. Some graduates have earned more than one degree.

A Global Community
In 2009, graduating students come from 40 states outside of New York state and 28  other nations including: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France,  Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Russian Federation, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan, to name a few.

Making the — Perfect — Grade
A perfect 4.0 grade-point average was earned by 16 of the students receiving bachelor’s degrees and 68 of the students receiving master’s or doctoral degrees from Rensselaer this year.

Taking the Podium
Acclaimed futurist and entrepreneur Peter Schwartz ’68 will deliver the Commencement address. Schwartz ’68  is co-founder and chairman of Global Business Network, a Monitor Group company, and a partner of the Monitor Group, a family of professional services firms devoted to enhancing client competitiveness and growth. An internationally renowned futurist and business strategist, Schwartz ’68 specializes in scenario planning, working with corporations, governments, and institutions to create alternative perspectives of the future and develop robust strategies for a changing and uncertain world. His current research and scenario work encompasses energy resources and the environment, technology, telecommunications, media and entertainment, aerospace, and national security. Schwartz ’68 is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the board of trustees of the Santa Fe Institute, the Long Now Foundation, the World Affairs Council, and Human Rights Watch.

Class President David Drew, a student who majored in biochemistry and biophysics will also address the class. The Freeville, N.Y. native has “strived to be a force in the community,” for while at Rensselaer and also in his hometown. He is a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, having served as the external vice president. Drew also created a new philanthropic event in which members of the fraternity and sisters of Alpha Gamma Delta would rock in sponsored rocking chairs for 36 straight hours. He is the recipient of the 2008 Frederick M. Nussbaum ’30 Memorial Award for Outstanding Volunteerism. Drew is also a member of Order of the Omega, the Greek Honor Society, and actively participates in intramural and intra-fraternity sports.  Following graduation, he will pursue his Ph.D. in biochemistry/biophysics at Rensselaer.

Honorary Degree Recipients
Schwartz ’68 will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters during the ceremony. Samuel Josefowitz ’42, an entrepreneur, chemical engineer, and prominent art collector and art expert, who spent years leading the Swiss-based mail order book and record club business he created and pioneered, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Engineering; Kenneth Chenault, a groundbreaking global business leader and mentor, and  Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the American Express Company, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws; and Robert Richardson, Nobel Prize winner in Physics (1996), who is the F.R. Newman Professor of Physics and Vice Provost for Research, Emeritus at Cornell University, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science.

Rensselaer’s Own
Hat’s off to you! This year 5 Rensselaer employees are graduating and 14 children of Rensselaer employees also are graduating.

Learning and Working in a Global Community
Despite the demands of a rigorous academic schedule, many graduating students at Rensselaer have carved out time to communicate across cultural and social boundaries and lead in the global community at Rensselaer.

Some of the members of the Class of 2009 are leaving the Institute having left their mark by creating opportunities for others expand experiences and awareness of the campus and local community.

The popularity and taste for new and original fare made its way onto the Rensselaer campus in 2007. In an effort to please the palates of socially conscious students, faculty, staff and members of the surrounding community, during the semester, Terra Café has been dishing up a weekly selection of local and organic meals, desserts, and beverages. The brainchild of Ella Braco, a native of Binghamton, N.Y., the student-run café has it’s loyal customers. Braco and several students work with Jackie Baldwin, culinary director for Sodexho Campus Services to develop the menu. Following graduation, the design, innovation, and society major will join the ranks of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) as a campus organizer. Braco says that she will be working with students to launch a variety of campaigns focused on fighting global warming, making higher education affordable, and increasing mass public transportation, among others.

In an effort to offer members of the Rensselaer campus community an innovative alternative to advertising upcoming events, announcements, and other messages, a team of Rensselaer students created a web-based digital signage system named Concerto. Founders, Brian Zaik, a computer and systems engineering major and August Fietkau, a dual major in computer science and management noted the “high costs and often limited appeal of traditional paper signs and banners,” served as the motivation to provide the campus with a “campuswide communication system that was accessible, collaborative, and simple.” The soon to be graduates along with team member Marc Ebuna, a dual major in information technology and psychology will join members of the Class of 2009. In the near future, the team is working on a plan to open source their software and make it available to students at other college campuses.

Continuing Academic Excellence
Many graduates will continue their studies after graduation. Among the schools that graduates will be attending are Albany Medical College, Albany Law School, Carnegie-Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Georgetown, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Oxford, Stanford, University of  Illinois, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin,  and, of course, Rensselaer.

All in the Family 
The Rensselaer degree is well-known throughout the world as a symbol of technological excellence and achievement. Rensselaer alumni are leaders. They are collaborative, able, and smart. This year, 145 members of the Class of 2009 are Rensselaer “legacies,” students with relatives who attended the university.

Service to Their Country
Thirty-Nine students will be graduating from Rensselaer’s ROTC programs and starting active military service as officers with the Army, Navy, Marine Corp, and Air Force. Commissioning signifies the beginning of  a student’s active military service. Each student will take an oath of office in his or her respective branch of service in one of three commissioning ceremonies taking place in the Capital Region.

In the Army, 19 graduates have been assigned as active duty and National Guard officers in military police, military intelligence, infantry, medical specialty, signal corps, transportation, field artillery, adjutant general, ordinance, and engineer branches. The commissioning ceremony for Army ROTC will take place on May 16 beginning at 2 p.m. in the Sarazen Student Union located in the Siena College campus. Colonel Gian Gentile, chairman of the Military History Department at the United States Military Academy will deliver remarks.

Twelve Naval graduates will work in aviation, surface ship, submarine, nursing, and Marine Corp assignments. The commissioning ceremony will take place on May 15 beginning at 10 a.m. in the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) theatre. Rear Admiral Mark Buzby will be the keynote speaker. 

In the Air Force, eight graduates will become civil engineers, pilots, combat systems, space and missiles, maintenance, and development engineering officers.  The commissioning ceremony will take place on May 15 beginning at noon in the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) theatre. Air Force Colonel William T. Cooley ’88 will be the keynote speaker.  Colonel Cooley is currently assigned to Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts, where he is the commander of the 350th Electronic Systems Group with responsibilities for the development, testing, fielding and sustainment of 19 Air and Space Operations Center (AOC) sites worldwide, as well as a variety of Foreign Military Sales programs.

Hot Jobs! Meet the Next Generation of Innovators in the Work Force
Preliminary results indicate that, despite the economic downturn, Rensselaer students — in all areas of study, including management, humanities, social sciences, information technology, and engineering — are still getting good jobs. Heading from the stage to offices and locations around the country, Rensselaer graduates will work for companies  that include: American Airlines, BAE Systems, Cisco Systems, Consolidated Edison, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, GE, Lockheed Martin, NASA, National Instruments, Philips Healthcare,  Raytheon, St. Jude Medical, United Technologies, Westinghouse Nuclear, and Xerox, to name a few.  

“Today’s employers desire students who have had some experience while in college,” said Tom Tarantelli, director of the Career Development Center at Rensselaer. “This is what gives a student the competitive edge when it comes to landing a full-time job.  Students should not be discouraged but ready to take advantage of opportunities when they become available. That is the nature of today’s market.”

Parting Gift
Each year at Commencement, the graduating class presents the university with a gift. The Class of 2009 is excited to present a unique and spirited gift to the university, raising more than $4,200 to create a lounge space in the newly created area in the Rensselaer Union Game Room.  The space will be called the ’09 Lounge. To date, 113 members of the class representing 13 percent of the class have donated to the project so far. In addition, 28 students became Patroons of Rensselaer with their gift of $100 or more.

Awarding Excellence in Counseling
Lupita Montoya, assistant professor in the department of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering, has been selected as this year’s recipient of the David M. Darrin Counseling Award, which will be presented during the Commencement ceremony. The award was established by David M. Darrin ’40 to recognize a faculty member who has made an unusual contribution in the counseling of undergraduate students. The selection of the award recipient is made by Phalanx, Rensselaer’s student leadership honorary society.

Montoya was recognized for her inspiring and welcoming attitude, as well as her efforts in taking students to Peru in support of humanitarian engineering causes and advisement on graduate school selection. Her counseling of students through her involvement in several organizations, including: the Engineers for a Sustainable World, Alpha Omega Epsilon Sorority, the Society of Women Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and the Newman Catholic Fellowship, are examples of the depth of her commitment to counseling and enhancement of the student experience. 

Student Service, Leadership, Scholarship Honored
At the May 14 Class of 2009 Zero Year Brunch and Awards Celebration, several graduating seniors were honored for their contributions to the Institute. The Willie Stanton Award, presented to the senior(s) judged to have contributed the most in service to the student body, was awarded to Jordan Hagaman, a nuclear and mechanical engineering major from Belmar, N.J. The Livingston W. Houston Citizenship Award, honoring the “first citizen of the college,” ranking high in character, leadership, scholarship, and athletic ability, was awarded to Mathias Lange, a management major from Klagenfurt, Austria. The Leopold L. Balleisen Prize, honoring a senior student athlete who has won a varsity letter in at least one sport during two undergraduate years and who stands highest academically in the senior class, was awarded to Ashley Mayr, a management major from Burnaby, British Columbia.

Notable Moments in Commencement History
As Rensselaer has evolved, so have its Commencement ceremonies. According to Institute Archives and Special Collections, this year marks several notable moments in Commencement history. Here are a couple of interesting facts:

• Rensselaer’s first Commencement was April 26, 1826, in the old Bank Place in Troy.  Asa Fitch, a member of the class of 1827 recorded the event in his diary. The graduates delivered demonstration lectures on scientific subjects, probably the first of their kind in American education, in language described by Fitch as “plain, familiar…no one attempting to be elegant or flowery in his discourse.
• Commencement was not held on campus until 1913 when the ‘87 Gym provided a large enough space to accommodate the ceremony.
• The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall hosted 37 consecutive commencements from 1876-1912.
• There were no commencements in 1852 and 1919. The degree program changed from 1 yr. to 3 yrs. in 1850 and therefore was no class of 1852. The Class of 1919 graduated in December 1918 due to an acceleration of the program during WWI.
• There was no commencement speaker in 1968.  Nelson Rockefeller cancelled due to the assassination of Robert Kennedy on June 5th two days before commencement.
• The first honorary degree (Doctor of Engineering) was awarded at commencement in 1916 to Robert W. Hunt, a long time trustee (Hunt Dormitory is named for him).

*All numbers cited are as of May 14, 2009, and are subject to change.

Contact: Jessica Otitigbe
Phone: (518) 276-6050
E-mail: otitij@rpi.edu