Catholic colleges in archdiocese
to hold graduations on May 7

By Brandon A. Evans

Saint Meinrad School of Theology, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, and Marian College in Indianapolis will hold their commencement ceremonies on May 7.

Benedictine Archabbot Justin DuVall, the recently elected head of Saint Meinrad Archabbey, will give the convocation address at Saint Meinrad.

The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. in St. Bede Theater on the grounds of the archabbey in southern Indiana.

Ten seminarians will receive a Master of Divinity degree and 16 seminarians and lay-degree students will receive a Master of Art (in Catholic Thought and Life) degree.

Juliana Simmons, a Marian College graduate from the class of 1962, will speak at her alma mater’s graduation ceremony.

The commencement exercises will begin at 2 p.m.

There will be 325 degrees conferred, including 13 Masters of Art in Teaching degrees. This is the third year that Marian College has conferred degrees at the master’s level.

There will be 84 students graduating from the college’s Adult Programs, the accelerated degree-program for working adults.

Simmons has served since 1986 as chair of the Washington Hospital Centers’ radiation oncology department and has worked to increase awareness of breast ­cancer prevention.

She teaches at the college level and has published ­articles ­in journals on the subject of breast cancer. She was selected at the “Top Doctor” by the Washingtonian Magazine in 1999.

Simmons will receive an honorary doctor of science degree.

Robert and Joan Smith, Indianapolis-area community letters who were also instrumental in starting the Our Lady of the Apostles Family Center in Greenfield, will also receive honorary doctor of humane letters degrees.

Kathryn Kelly Sinnott, a champion of the rights of the disabled, will be the commencement speaker at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College near Terre Haute.

The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. in the Cecilian Auditorium of the college’s Conservatory of Music, and 123 students will receive bachelor’s degrees—59 from the campus and 64 from the Women’s External Degree program. Sixteen students will receive master’s degrees from the college.

Sinnott, who is particularly concerned with disabled children, attended Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College for several years in the 1960s before moving to Ireland, where she now holds dual citizenship.

She was recently elected as a member of the European Parliament and divides her time between Dublin and Brussels.

The college will award her an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. †