Commencement celebrations begin next week

Celebrating at 2012 Commencement. Nearly 7,650 students will be honored next week.

Nearly 7,650 students will be honored next week as they receive undergraduate, graduate, professional degrees and certificates at commencements and convocations.

The celebrations in the UIC Forum and UIC Pavilion begin May 8 with the Honors College convocation and end May 12 with the commencement for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, will receive an honorary degree at School of Public Health ceremonies May 10.

Edelman, the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, was director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Other commencement speakers include U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, who will address graduates of Applied Health Sciences May 9 via pre-recorded video; Patrick Fitzgerald, former federal prosecutor who led corruption cases against former Illinois governors George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich, Urban Planning and Public Affairs, May 10; Barbara Eason-Watkins, former Chicago Public Schools chief education officer who is now superintendent of Michigan City Area Schools, Ind., Education, May 9; Jeremy Lazarus, an alumnus and president of the American Medical Association, Medicine, May 10; venture capitalist William Unger, Engineering, May 11; John E. Adams, CEO of the age medical management firm Cenegenics, Business Administration, May 11; and Chicago artist and musician Jon Langford, Architecture and the Arts, May 11.