Baruch College to Graduate 5,024 Students at Commencement Ceremony on May 30 at Barclays Center

National Endowment of the Arts Chairman Dr. Jane Chu to deliver keynote address; ceremony to confer more than 5,000 degrees in business, arts and sciences, and public affairs

May 18, 2018

Baruch College will hold its 2018 Commencement on May 30 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, conferring 5,024 degrees in business, business administration, public and international affairs, education, and arts and sciences. The Class of 2018 includes more than 3,800 undergraduate and over 1,200 graduate degree recipients.

Baruch College President Mitchel B. Wallerstein, PhD, will preside over the exercises and David Christy, PhD, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, will serve as the master of ceremonies.

The Commencement ceremony will begin at 9:30 a.m. at Barclays Center, located at 620 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. The event will also be livestreamed starting at 9:15 a.m. via the College’s homepage, www.baruch.cuny.edu. Follow and share on the College’s social media channels: Twitter and Facebook.

Keynote Speaker

Jane Chu, PhD, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), will deliver the keynote address and receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree.

Since being confirmed as chairman by the U.S. Senate in 2014, Dr. Chu has awarded more than $409 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and artists and oversaw multiple-year increases to the NEA’s Congressional budget appropriation to expand its military healing arts initiative, Creative Forces. She also launched the United States of Arts project that demonstrates the importance of the arts in communities across the country. An accomplished and artist, Dr. Chu is the daughter of Chinese immigrants.

Read more about Dr. Chu’s accomplishments as head of the NEA here.

Alumnus to Receive Honorary Degree

Austin W. Marxe (’65), who graduated with a Bachelor’s of Business Administration with a major in Accounting, will be awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree. Mr. Marxe is the president and managing director of AWM Investment Company, a firm he founded in 1991 which supports small companies that would otherwise not be financeable.

Mr. Marxe has always had an eye toward giving back. In 2007, he made a gift to the Baruch College Fund to purchase new Bloomberg terminals for the trading floor and began supporting the scholarship fund in 2011. He endowed the Austin Marxe Scholarship for promising incoming freshman in 2015 and made a $30 million gift to Baruch in 2016 to endow and name the Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. Mr. Marxe’s donation was the largest single gift in the history of Baruch College.

Watch a video interview with Marxe and learn more about the man behind this transformation gift in the Baruch Alumni magazine.

Valedictorian and Salutatorian

The valedictorian for the Class of 2018 is Patrycja Koszykowska, who is receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in Political Science and Economics from the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences.

She was a 2017 Rhodes Scholarship nominee, received a 2016 Phenomenal Woman Award from the Baruch College Women’s History Month Committee, and was a recipient of the 2014 Comptroller’s Achievement Award in Economics and Finance in Nassau County.

As a student, Ms. Koszykowska has been an active participant in many campus organizations, as well as having served as Secretary and then President of the Polish Culture Club at the College. Ms. Koszykowska will be attending graduate school at the University of Cambridge to obtain a Master of Philosophy in International Relations and Politics.

Kevin Savarese is the salutatorian for the Class of 2018. A Macaulay Scholar, he will graduate with a Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in Economics and a double minor in Business Law and Interdisciplinary Honors in New York City Studies from the Zicklin School of Business.

Mr. Savarese made the Dean’s List in 2015, 2016, and 2017, and was inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society, and the Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society.

On campus, Mr. Savarese has participated in the Max Berger Pre-Law Fellows Program in the Starr Career Development Center, was co-founder and vice president of the Photography Club in the Macaulay Honors College, and a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society. Upon graduation, Mr. Savarese will enter Fordham University School of Law with a merit scholarship.

Learn more about Ms. Koszykowska and Mr. Savarese here.

Watch and Follow the 2018 Commencement Live

Watch the livestream of the Commencement ceremony on May 30 beginning at 9:15 a.m. via Baruch College’s website. Follow and share on the College’s social media channels: Twitter and Facebook.

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