Ceremony and Smeal Reception Set for Commencement Weekend

About 300 students will receive undergraduate degrees from the Penn State Smeal College of Business next week, and more than 30 students will earn their Master of Accounting degrees, during commencement ceremonies to mark the end of the fall semester at Penn State.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (December 13, 2012) -- About 300 students will receive undergraduate degrees from the Penn State Smeal College of Business next week, and more than 30 students will earn their Master of Accounting degrees, during commencement ceremonies to mark the end of the fall semester at Penn State.

The commencement ceremony for undergraduate students from across the University will be held at 9 a.m. on Dec. 22 in the Bryce Jordan Center and will feature Penn State President Rodney A. Erickson as speaker.

Smeal will host a reception on Dec. 21 for members of the class of 2012 and their friends and family members. The Senior Sendoff celebration will take place from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Business Building Atrium. Charles H. Whiteman, the John and Becky Surma Dean of Smeal, will deliver remarks at about 4:30 p.m. and light refreshments will be served.

Whiteman will also be featured as the commencement speaker at the Penn State Graduate School ceremony, to be held at 4 p.m. on Dec. 22 in Eisenhower Auditorium. He will offer some advice for moving forward in their careers, including some of the ways skepticism can be beneficial to decision-making.

REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Victoria Fryer in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or mediarelations@smeal.psu.edu.

Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, management and organization, marketing, risk management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.