UW-Parkside Spring 2024 Commencement Set for May 11

Published: April 19, 2024

The University of Wisconsin-Parkside will hold its Spring 2024 Commencement on Saturday, May 11 in the De Simone Arena in the Sports and Activity Center. The ceremony for graduates from the College of Business, Economics, and Computing and the College of Arts and Humanities will begin at 9 a.m. with doors opening at 8 a.m. The ceremony for graduates from the College of Natural and Health Sciences and the College of Social Sciences and Professional Studies will begin at 2 p.m. with the doors opening at 1 p.m. The ceremonies will honor more than 500 graduates and will be followed by receptions in the Petretti Fieldhouse. Refreshments and photo opportunities will be available.

This semester's commencement speaker will be Steve Scherer, an alumnus of UW-Parkside ('10) and the Vice President of sales at CCB Technology. Steve is a Husband, father to four children, an avid outdoorsman, and has more than 10 years of sales experience. He has grown from rep to department head and has been responsible for exponential growth at CCB Technology. Steve is being promoted to VP of sales & marketing in June.

Steve is the host of The Impact of Leadership podcast. The Impact of Leadership Media Group was subsequently born and has grown into a multifaceted organization. A proud alumnus of UW-Parkside, Steve is motivated by connecting people to people and people to ideas. He believes that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your decisions.

In addition, UW-Parkside will recognize seven Outstanding Graduates and one Chancellor's Award Recipient during the ceremony. The honorees are:

• Kalyn Diercks | Theatre Arts (Port Washington, Wisconsin) (Chancellor's Award)
• Allison Francisco | Economics & Marketing (Ada, Michigan)
• Makenzie Kaput | Secondary Education & History (Plainfield, Illinois)
• Ria Patel | Biological Sciences (Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin)
• Sarah Plutchak | Biological Sciences (Kenosha, Wisconsin)
• Elishai Riley | Political Science (Racine, Wisconsin)
• Antwaun Sanders | Master of Business Administration (Brooklyn, New York)
• Cal Solverson | Master of Arts in Professional Communication (Iowa City, Iowa)

Chancellor's Award Recipient Kalyn Diercks will address her fellow graduates. Diercks majored in Theatre Arts with concentrations in Acting and Design & Technology. She was previously awarded the Picken Scholarship, the Goldstein Scholarship and the Arno Gunther Memorial Scholarship.

Diercks is a gifted performer, costume designer, and costume technician. She has earned an award for excellence in costume design from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region 3. She has taken on other production roles and has worked on every show produced at UW-Parkside during her tenure as a costume shop student-employee and served on the Season Selection Student Committee for three years.

She has served as both the secretary and activities and events coordinator for the Drama Club. Diercks was selected as a student mentor and as a theatre arts recruitment ambassador. She has served as a summer camp director for Cedarburg Children's Theatre and was hired as a costume apprentice and stitcher for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

For more details about UW-Parkside's Spring 2024 commencement, click here.

The University of Wisconsin-Parkside is committed to high-quality educational programs, creative and scholarly activities, and services responsive to its diverse student population, and its local, national, and global communities. We are a dynamic learning community grounded in academic excellence and focused on student success, diversity, inclusion, and community engagement. The campus serves as a premier comprehensive public institution and a destination of choice, serving as a focal point of local, regional, and global progress.

Media contact:

Derek Fye
Communications Manager
University of Wisconsin-Parkside
[email protected] | (262) 771-5419