NOTE: This web page is archived for the Class of 2004. To see the Commencement site for this year's class, click here.

The wider world beckons for UMass Amherst seniors

UMass Amherst Chancellor John V. Lombardi strongly favors student-centered commencements. This year’s program accordingly featured the presentations of the second annual 21st-Century Leader Awards, which include a $1,000 check for each recipient courtesy of the Alumni Association. Honored for their exemplary standards of achievement, initiative, and social awareness were 16 graduates:

• Political Science major Johanna Sophia Aguilar of Maywood, California
• Leanna Stallard Barlow of Lincoln, Rhode Island, a BDIC major in Community Health and Social Justice
• Nursing major Autumn B. Cohen of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts
• Operations Management major Stephen T. Davis of Methuen, Massachusetts
• Physics major Jonathan Dick of East Walpole, Massachusetts
• History major Hannah S. Fatemi of West Brookfield, Massachusetts
• Biology major Patrick Ryan Getty of Springfield, Massachusetts
• Mechanical Engineering major Jennifer R. Gosselin of Millbury, Massachusetts
• Kimberly M. McLaughlin of Spencer, Massachusetts, a double major in Communication and Psychology
• Matthew D. Pelnar of Cresskill, New Jersey, a double major in Political Science and Philosophy
• Environmental Science major Melissa A. Russell of Titusville, New Jersey
• Rafael V. Santana of Weston, Florida, a double major in Electrica Engineering and Computer Systems Engineering
• John J. Stenglein of Hatfield, Massachusetts, a double major in Biology and Spanish
• Diwakar Turaga of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, a double major in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Physics
• Nursing major Marla A. Washington of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Natalya Weinstein-Roberts of Leverett, Massachusetts, a BDIC major in Social Justice Through the Arts.

Honorary doctoral degrees were presented to Michael G. Philipp, UMass Amherst Class of 1975, and Walter Chesnut, longtime member of the university’s music faculty. Philipp was praised for his many innovations in global financial services and for his generous and wide-ranging philanthropy. Chesnut, one of the campus’s best-loved figures, was recognized for the exceptional quality of his musicianship and the profound impact his teaching has had on generations of musicians and music instructors.

The Distinguished Achievement Award—one of a series of honors created this year to recognize exemplary accomplishment by persons with no direct current affiliation with the university—was presented to Harold Grinspoon, founder and president of Aspen Square Management, a national real estate company. A preeminent philanthropist in western Massachusetts, Grinspoon was praised for his support of education (including UMass Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management), medical research, and Jewish community life.

This year’s student speaker was Jamie Lavin of Weymouth, Massachusetts. A high-profile figure in campus residential life during the past four years, she focused on recalling experienced shared by the Class of 2004 as they prepared to leave Amherst.   back