LOCK HAVEN, Pa. -Over 700 students received degrees from Lock Haven University during 2011 spring commencement ceremonies. A total of 619 candidates for bachelor and master’s degrees participated in the ceremonies for College of Education and Human Services and the College of Arts and Sciences on Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7. In addition, 85 bachelor and associate degree students received degrees on Wednesday, May 4 at the university’s Clearfield Campus.
Keynote speaker for the Friday and Saturday ceremonies was President Dixon. Drawing upon some of her experiences in her 41-year career, she focused on three topics: leadership, failure and hope. Sometimes, she said, we are faced with a “leadership moment” when we are called on to meet a challenge. She also told the graduates, “You will in your life learn more from your failures than you will from your successes,” and urged them, when faced with criticism, to “look for the kernel of truth” that will enable them to grow. “No one,” she said, “dies of embarrassment.” She expressed her hope that the graduates will never stop learning. “Never be without a book,” she said. President Dixon concluded with her wish for the graduates: “May you create for yourselves exciting, interesting and meaningful lives.”

Speaker for the Clearfield ceremony was attorney Carl Belin, who was instrumental in the establishment of LHU’s Clearfield Campus.

Founded in 1870, Lock Haven University is a public liberal arts university with 5349 students from 28 states and 32 other countries. The university offers 53 majors and 42 minors.