Stephanie Grassia, Marine Science Student Researcher, to Address
Southampton College at C.W. Post Class of 2006

Brookville, N.Y. – “I’ve always loved the ocean,” Stephanie Grassia said.

It is fitting then that the accomplished 22-year-old student/researcher will graduate from Southampton College at C.W. Post on Sunday, May 14 with a bachelor of science degree in marine science.

Grassia, a native of McCook, Neb., has accumulated extensive research experience during her college career. She spent nine weeks aboard a schooner in Southampton’s SEAmester program, visiting Caribbean ports of call. Then came work aboard a smaller craft in the bays of Long Island’s southern shore, conducting “bottom typing” with sonic instruments.

In August of 2005 Grassia was back on the high seas, this time counting whales and dolphins in the Pacific Ocean south of Hawaii, aboard a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration research ship. Barely a month later she was in Valencia, Spain, studying the behaviors of juvenile walruses at L’Oceanografic, one of the world’s largest aquariums. Grassia and fellow Southampton Marine Science major Emily Kane presented     their research at the annual meeting of the European Association for Aquatic Mammals in     Italy in March.

When Southampton College’s undergraduate programs were transferred to the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in Brookville in September 2005, Grassia continued work on her Southampton degree at the C.W. Post Campus. Her career goals are focused on the well-being of the creatures of the sea. “I want to study the effect of human noise on aquatic animals,” she said.

Grassia will be one of more than 2,300 students who will gather on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 14, 2006 for the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University’s 48th commencement exercises. The Campus has awarded more than 92,000 degrees in its 51-year history, through a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programs. The Class of 2006 includes 949 baccalaureate degree candidates, 1,376 master's degree candidates, 16 graduates receiving the Psy.D. in clinical psychology and three receiving the Ph.D. in information studies. This year, C.W. Post’s commencement ceremonies also include graduates from Southampton College and the Southampton Graduate Campus of Long Island University.