Persistence, Passion and Pomp & Circumstance: C.W. Post Graduates
More Than 2,500 at 50th Anniversary Commencement
100,000 th alumnus is among graduates, while valedictorian,
competing at race walking World Cup in Russia , addresses grads & guests on videotape

Brookville, N.Y. – Half a century after its first commencement, when just eight people donned caps and gowns, the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University graduated more than 2,500 students on the Great Lawn on Sunday, May 11, 2008. The featured speaker urged the graduates to be persistent and passionate in their careers, while the valedictorian – speaking on videotape because she was competing in Russia at the race walking World Cup -- reminded her peers that “life is a journey, not a destination.”

“We must not only strive for the goal but embrace the experience,” biology major Maria Michta of Nesconset, N.Y. told thousands of graduates and guests in a brief address shown on a video screen in the mammoth commencement tent. “So savor this day and celebrate your achievements.”

One thousand twenty-two bachelor’s degrees, 1,434 master’s degrees, 19 doctorates and two associate degrees were awarded at C.W. Post’s 50th anniversary commencement – a far cry from the first commencement in 1958, when seven men and one woman graduated.

Kevin Wilson, a dialysis social worker/supervisor at Central Suffolk Artificial Kidney Center in Port Jefferson, N.Y., on Sunday became the 100,000th person to graduate from C.W. Post. The married father of two, who earned a Master of Public Administration degree and aspires to be either a professor or a nursing home administrator, said he was honored to become the 100,000th alum – though at first he didn’t believe it, since he got the news on April 1.

Sunday’s commencement was the last presided over by Joseph Shenker, provost of C.W. Post since 1995, who announced his retirement in April. A search for his replacement is under way.

“I have loved every minute of my term as provost of C.W. Post,” Dr. Shenker, 68, said. “It has been a pleasure to serve so many people.”

Jorge Perez, the commencement speaker and a 1972 C.W. Post graduate who today is CEO of The Related Group, the nation’s largest multi-family real estate development company, recalled passing up a chance to be valedictorian at his own graduation because he was too shy to speak. “I have, after 40 years, somewhat conquered that fear and thus you have me here today,” he said.

“For me, hard work and passion always go together,” said Perez, whose company has developed $10.7 billion worth of real estate in Florida since 1979. “I can’t be the best by just working hard. I need to have the passion that is necessary to transcend the commonplace. The combination of passion and hard work are what enable you to move from good to great.”

Perez, Dr. Shenker and John F. Burns, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, were awarded honorary doctorates. Burns is the longest-tenured foreign correspondent in The Times’ history and has covered the war in Iraq, the rise and fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s and China’s Cultural Revolution.

Michta, who graduated with a 4.0 grade point average and will enter the Ph.D. in biomedical sciences program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in the fall, finished 66th at the 23rd IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Cheboksary, Russia on Sunday. A track and field star at C.W. Post, Michta also has qualified for the Olympic trials in Oregon in July.

For the first time, C.W. Post designated two salutatorians for the Class of 2008: Ambar Arancibia Dieterich, a fine arts major, and Bailey Stark, an arts management major. “Both Ambar and Bailey are dynamic, extraordinary students,” Dr. Shenker said. “After much debate, the selection committee came to the realization that the only wise choice was to grant them both the honor.”

Invited to take part in Commencement on Sunday were the 55 members of the first graduating class of Long Island University at Riverhead, a graduate center which opened in September 2006. Among them were 27 students receiving master’s degrees in education, 23 receiving advanced certificates from the Homeland Security Management Institute, and five earning master's degrees in homeland security management. The M.S. in homeland security management was the first of its kind registered in New York State and the University's first fully online degree program.

Also taking part in Sunday’s commencement exercises were the final 24 graduates of Southampton College, which transferred its academic programs to C.W. Post and discontinued new admissions in 2005. The valedictorian of the Southampton Class of 2008 was Erin Wylie of Hauppauge, N.Y., a psychobiology major.