The Walsh University community came together on Sunday, May 3, to celebrate the academic and personal accomplishments of its 437 spring graduates as they received their respective associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees. They join the 290 graduates from Walsh’s winter Commencement Ceremony for a total of 727 graduates for the 2014-15 academic year, one of the largest number of graduates in the school’s history.
Close to 4,000 people attended the outdoor Commencement Ceremony held in Walsh’s quadrangle. Pastor Walter S. Moss presented the keynote address and was also honored by President Richard Jusseaume with the Walsh University Founders’ Award. In addition, long-time educator Carol Sandbrink, Ph.D., was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for her commitment and service to Walsh’s MAED Program in Uganda.
Pastor Walter S. Moss has served as a minister in the United States and around the world for the past 39 years. He is currently the Project Director for the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV). Internationally, he has traveled to many nations doing short term mission work, including Kenya, Niger, Togo, and the Caribbean. Pastor Moss recently retired as the pastor of Canton Foursquare Church, a position he held for 17 years while serving the Stark County area as a pastor for more than 25 years.
The Walsh University Founders' Award was established in 1985 and is awarded to those who have achieved national stature by illustrating in their lives the same ideals that inspired the Venerable John de La Mennais and Father Gabriel Deshayes in establishing the Brothers of Christian Instruction, Walsh’s founders. These ideals are faith in God, fidelity to the Catholic Church, active concern for Christian education, dedication to authentic social justice and courageous promotion of human welfare especially among those less fortunate and disenfranchised.
The Walsh University Distinguished Service Medal is given to those who have rendered distinguished professional or voluntary service to others within the national, regional or local community. Among her many accomplishments during her more than 35-year career with Walsh University,Dr. Carol Sandbrink was instrumental in launching the Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program in Uganda, an unprecedented step for an Ohio college that exemplified an international cooperation seldom seen at that time in higher education. Since 2007, her dedicated service and involvement has included a remarkable 24 trips to Uganda, where she personally visited more than 196 students on-site at their internship schools. The on-site calls often require traveling on one-lane roads that pose challenges for the vehicles, drivers, and passengers while visiting schools without electricity and water, without chalk boards, and without desks.
The Tower of Excellence Award recipient and senior class speaker Dominica Rhein earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with a dual major in English and Education and dual minors in Theology and Communications. Rhein graduated Summa Cum Laude in December 2014, earning Dean’s List Honors each semester at Walsh.