1,500-plus earn diplomas
SLIPPERY ROCK — Several graduating Slippery Rock University students had the same answer when asked Saturday what they plan to do next: find work.
SRU presented 1,549 undergraduate and graduate diplomas at two ceremonies Saturday in Morrow Field House.
Before the afternoon ceremony graduating students from the College of Business and the College of Education talked about their plans and reflected on their experiences at SRU.
Jeremy Jantsch, 22, of Zelienople said he was receiving a bachelor's degree in marketing and has an interview lined up for a bank internship.
His dream is to work for one of the biggest technology companies in the world — Google — which is headquartered in California, but has offices in Pittsburgh.
Graduating from SRU may help him fit in with Google's business culture, Jantsch said.
“They tend to hire from smaller schools. They say coming from a smaller school, you're not as big-headed and you're easy to work with,” he said.
Heath Lominski, 22, of Eau Claire said he has been working full-time at Hunter Truck Sales for four years while also pursuing a degree in accounting.
He plans to continue his education soon by taking additional classes and working toward a certified public accountant certification.
Lominski said he will continue working at Hunter, in the accounting department, and doesn't want to leave the region.
“I want to stay around here, I like my family too much,” he said.
Sarah Bobby, 21, of Butler Township said she went to Butler County Community College for two years and then attended SRU for two years while living in Butler.
She majored in marketing and business management and already has a job lined up as a sales consultant at ADP, Automatic Data Processing, in Robinson Township, Allegheny County.
An SRU degree will help her find opportunities in the future, she said.
“I feel confident that, at least in the eastern U.S., people know the name, especially for business,” she said.A couple of education students said they are pursuing teaching positions.Angus McDowell, 22, of Slippery Rock said he earned a degree in physical and health education and is now certified to teach grades kindergarten through 12.McDowell hopes to find a job somewhere not far from his hometown.“There's a few openings I have to go out there and get after,” he said.Amanda Kasperski, 22, of Cranberry Township said she specialized in early childhood and special education.She hopes to land a teaching job first, either locally or elsewhere, and then think about returning to school to earn a master's degree.Going to SRU was a positive experience, Kasperski said.“I loved it. I loved the professors. I loved the friends I made,” she said.SRU President Cheryl Norton provided opening remarks at the ceremony taking a moment, on the day before Mother's Day, to recognize the mothers in the audience as well as all friends and family of graduates who supported them on their journey.The speaker for the afternoon commencement was David Valentine, interim dean of the SRU College of Business.Valentine touted the value of a college education.Fewer than one in four Pennsylvanians has a college degree, while the U.S. Bureau of Labor predicts that in the near future 60 percent of jobs will require a degree, he said.Spending their time and money to earn an education at SRU was therefore well worth it, Valentine told the graduates.“You are now amongst the elite,” he said.
