ALBANY, NY—The 54th Maria College Commencement is scheduled for Sunday, May 15 at 3:30pm in the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany, NY. Albany Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger, D.D. will confer degrees and certificates to more than 200 graduates, Sister Karen Schneider, M.D. will address the class of 2016, and Mary Beth Casey O’Brien will receive the McAuley Service of Distinction Award.
The Class of 2016 graduation events start on Friday, May 13 with the White Tea and nursing pinning ceremony at 11am for the AAS nursing graduates and at 2pm for the Professional Nursing Certificate (PNC) students. Both groups will be welcomed into the nursing profession by the Maria College nursing faculty followed by a traditional candle lighting ceremony and the reciting of the International Council of Nurses’ Pledge. Friday’s graduation activities will include a 5 pm commencement Mass at Mercy Chapel (next door to the College) celebrated by Father Robert Longobucco and a 6 pm commencement dinner with an academic awards convocation on the College’s side lawn under a white tent.
Maria College Interim President Dr. Thomas Gamble stated, “The Maria Board of Trustees and I are looking forward to providing a celebratory setting for graduates, their families and friends to observe this very important milestone in their lives as they go forth in the world with degrees in occupational therapy assistant, nursing, psychology, paralegal, management, liberal arts, and certificates in practical nursing, gerontology, paralegal, and bereavement studies. We are also very excited that this is the first year that we will confer degrees in our newest bachelor’s degree majors, Psychology and Health and Occupational Sciences.”
The 2016 commencement speaker, Karen Schneider RSM, M.D., a Religious Sister of Mercy, pediatrician and medical professor at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland will address graduates with healing insights and wisdom making them aware of how a small intervention can positively change children’s lives. President Gamble stated, “Sister Schneider’s address to the Class of 2016 is very fitting for a College whose education, since it was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1958, has been based upon service, compassion and respect.”
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About Maria College
Maria College is a baccalaureate nonprofit, independent, co-educational institution in Albany, NY founded in 1958 by the Sisters of Mercy, and is one of 16 colleges and universities in the United States sponsored by the Conference for Mercy Higher Education.
For Immediate Release
communication@mariacollege.edu