May 2, 2019
University of Montana Western Chancellor Beth Weatherby announced that the University’s 122nd Annual Commencement will take place Saturday, May 11, 2019. The ceremony will begin at 11:00 a.m. in the Straugh Gymnasium on the Montana Western campus.
462 Montana Western graduates will be awarded at least 561 degrees by the end of the 2018-19 academic year. Of the 462 students, 91 have completed two or more degrees, and over 60% of the graduates are receiving honors by achieving a GPA of 3.33 or higher.
Weatherby said this year’s program will include commencement speaker Casey Winn Lozar and will honor Susan Jones with the University’s Alumni Distinguished Service Award.
“This is a real milestone in the lives of our graduates and their families. It is gratifying to see the culmination of the hard work on the part of our students, faculty and staff,” Weatherby said.
Casey Winn Lozar is a member of the Montana University System’s Board of Regents. Lozar was born and raised on the Flathead Indian Reservation and is an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. He currently serves as Assistant Vice President and Outreach Executive for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, a role he began in October 2018. Based out of the Bank’s Helena Branch, Lozar engages with business, civic and education leaders in Montana and throughout the Federal Reserve’s Ninth District to gather local and regional economic information that is leveraged to inform national monetary policy.
Susan Jones graduated from Montana Western in 1975 with two B.S. Secondary Education degrees and a K-12 library endorsement, followed in 1984 by a master’s degree in education. Her passion in life has been focused on lifelong learning with a special emphasis on continuing adult and senior education. In 1985, she became the Director of the UMW School of Outreach until becoming the Associate Vice President of Program Development for North America of Elderhostel, Inc. (now named Road Scholar) in 1998. From 2011-2017, she served in several roles for the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education in Helena, Mont.
Students at Montana Western benefit from an innovative scheduling program, called Experience One, where students take a single course at a time, three hours each day for 18 days, then move on to the next. The University emphasizes immersive learning to prepare students to be successful as they pursue their career choice or move on to acquire advanced degrees.
Graduates should arrive with regalia by 9:15 a.m. for rehearsal and line up.
For those who are unable to attend in person, a live stream of the event will be available starting at 10:00 am on the day of Commencement by visiting tinyurl.com/UMWCommencement.
For more information about Commencement, please contact the Montana Western Registrar’s Office by calling 406-683-7371.
