Wartburg College will recognize 383 graduates of the Class of 2012 during its 160th Spring Commencement ceremonies Sunday, May 27.
Commencement will begin at 1:30 p.m. in Hoover Fieldhouse and Track in the Wartburg-Waverly Sports & Wellness Center. Students from 15 states and 12 countries will receive degrees. Another 33 members of the Class of 2012 graduated in December.
Wartburg President Darrel Colson will give the charge to the class. The student speaker will be Britney Hermsen of Farley, the outstanding senior in community sociology, member of three national honor societies and captain of the volleyball team.
The college will present an honorary laws and literature degree to Erik Bettermann, director-general of Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcasting company.
Bettermann has led Deutsche Welle (“German Wave”) since 2001. DW produces TV, radio, and online content in 30 languages, providing a European perspective and promoting intercultural dialogue to a worldwide audience of nearly 90 million.
“As Wartburg College continues to celebrate its rich German heritage and cultivate relationships that will benefit students through cultural and academic exchanges and other deep and integrative learning experiences,” Colson said, “it is fitting to recognize Erik Bettermann, whose life and work exemplifies the characteristics we seek to instill in our students.”
The college and DW have forged a relationship that includes an internship at its Washington D.C. bureau and Wartburg representatives attending the annual DW Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany, in June.
In 2011, the college honored another German dignitary, Christine Lieberknecht, minister president (governor) of Thuringia, the German state where the college’s namesake Wartburg Castle in located.
The two outstanding high school teachers — nominated by graduating Wartburg students — also will be honored.
Marci Dunlap is curriculum director for the Fairfield Community Schools, but previously served as a secondary language arts teacher, yearbook adviser, junior varsity softball coach and middle school volleyball and track coach. Jaime Gathje is a Spanish instructor and foreign languages chair at Mayo High School in Rochester, Minn.
Commencement Weekend events that are free and open to the public include:
- Senior Art Exhibit, Saturday and Sunday, May 26-27, 9 a.m.-7 p.m., Waldemar A. Schmidt Art Gallery, Bachman Fine Arts Center
- May Term Band Concert, South Campus Mall, Saturday, May 26, 6:30 p.m. (Rain site is Neumann Auditorium.)
- Baccalaureate, Neumann Auditorium; Pastor Ramona Bouzard, Wartburg College dean of the Chapel, will preach, Sunday, May 27, 10 a.m.
- Pre-Commencement Concert by Wartburg Concert Bands, Hoover Fieldhouse and Track, Sunday, May 27, 1 p.m.
- Commencement, Hoover Fieldhouse and Track, Sunday, May 27, 1:30 p.m. (doors open at 12:30 p.m.)