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Alumni & Friends
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News Stories
Neumann Awards First Doctoral Degrees
Ann and Mark Baiada of Bayada Nurses Deliver Commencement Address
Twenty-five students received the first doctoral degrees ever awarded by Neumann College at commencement exercises on May 19. Fourteen women and 11 men accepted their doctor of physical therapy (DPT) degrees during the ceremony, which was held on the south lawn under sunny skies.
Approximately 580 degrees were presented at the College’s 41st commencement: 25 doctoral degrees, 134 master’s degrees, 401 bachelor’s degrees and 20 associate degrees.
To see candid photos of the day, click here.
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Anthony and Rhonda Bosarge celebrate with their three children. Anthony earned a DPT despite Hurricane Katrina’s efforts to blow him off course. |
Katrina Can’t Stop Quest for Doctorate
Neumann’s graduate physical therapy offering is one of only four weekend DPT programs in the country. Students from as far away as Colorado, Mississippi and South Carolina have traveled to campus for 30 weekends a year during the last three years, in addition to completing the required clinical experience, to earn a doctorate in physical therapy while they kept their Monday-through-Friday jobs.
One of them is Anthony Bosarge, a resident of Saucier, Mississippi, who lost most of his possessions and his job two years ago when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Bosarge, his spouse and three children were housed after the disaster by the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia while he continued working toward his degree at Neumann. The Sisters eventually found him a temporary home in the area and a school for his children. The entire family, now back home on the Gulf after living in the Delaware Valley for more than nine months, attended graduation.
Neumann began graduate study in physical therapy with an accredited entry-level master’s degree in 1998 and made the transition to a doctoral degree in 2005. |
Pierre McKenzie quit his job as a
geologist to raise his three children.
He graduated with a B.S. in nursing. |
From Geologist to Nurse:
Father Sacrifices Career
for his Kids
Bosarge wasn’t the only graduate with an unusual story. For 20 years, Pierre McKenzie made a good living as a geologist. The only drawback to his job was that it required him to be away from his Aston home for weeks at a time – drilling, analyzing samples, testing groundwater and investigating hazardous waste. Then, in 2004, his wife Robin died, and McKenzie came to a stark realization. He couldn’t continue in the only career he had ever known with three young children (ages 9, 11 and 12) depending on him.
McKenzie, 51, graduated with a BS in nursing after spending almost three years in classes with students not even half his age, preparing for a profession dominated by women. He chose nursing, he says, because it’s a stable field in which educated professionals are in demand. In July, he starts his new career – as a nurse in the critical care unit of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. |
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Using Smarts to Fight Gang Violence
A more traditional-aged student with a compelling story is Karen Pahuana. She’s only 22, but Pahuana has already helped the police fight gang-related violent crime. As an intern this spring, the Northeast Philadelphia resident worked as an intelligence analyst with the Philadelphia-Camden High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, an agency funded by the Department of Justice. Her familiarity with Analyst Notebook, a software tool used in the Neumann criminal justice program, allowed her to create link analysis charts that illustrated the connections and behavioral patterns among 40 West Philly teenagers with criminal records.
So impressed was the Police Department that the Southwest Division Task Force used her analysis in a monthly briefing for members of the FBI, ATF, DEA and U.S. Attorney’s Office. Pahuana would like to work for the FBI one day but knows that she needs experience first. A native of Colombia, South America, she hopes to use her language skills (English, Spanish and Italian) to work with courts or law enforcement agencies, preferably helping victims of violent crime. |
Karen Pahuana has already helped Philadelphia police fight gang-related violent crime during her criminal justice internship.
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Commencement Address
The College presented Ann and Mark Baiada with honorary degrees at the graduation ceremonies. The wife
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Mark and Ann Baiada delivered the commencement address together. |
and husband team, respectively a director and founder of Bayada Nurses, a national leader in the home care industry, co-delivered the 2007 commencement address.
In their remarks, they told the graduates that “A 52-inch flat screen does not give you vision. Jewelry is a treat, but real sparkle comes from inside. Designer shoes won’t make you walk tall.” They concluded with ten rules for life:
- Open your heart.
- Use your head.
- Be nice.
- Dream big.
- Your parents DO know better than you.
- Family is everything.
- Hold on to your friends.
- Grow up. Don’t grow old.
- Work hard.
- Support Neumann.
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Sr. Margaret Lewis received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.
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Sr. Margaret Mary Lewis, OSF, Ph.D., also received an honorary degree. Sister Margaret is coordinator of donor development at The Catholic High School of Baltimore and serves as secretary of the Neumann College Board of Trustees. For 13 years, she worked at Neumann as professor and program director of clinical laboratory sciences, and is credited with designing the College's program in this field.
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The 2007 valedictory medal was presented to Dawn Marie Carpenter, of Brookhaven, who is an elementary and special education major. Carpenter works with autistic children at the Devereux Institute’s Kanner Center in West Chester.
As valedictorian of the class of 2007, Dawn Carpenter had the honor of addressing her classmates. |
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Janet Massey, an assistant professor in business and information management, won the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching. “At the end of the day,” she told the class of 2007, “the most important thing is the relationships that you build. Treasure your friends.”
Dr. Gerard O’Sullivan presented assistant professor Janet Massey with the Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching. |
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5/19/07
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