MEDIA CONTACT: Lisa Freed
561-297-3022, lfreed@fau.edu or
Andrew LaPlant
561-297-0884, alaplant@fau.edu

FAU Celebrates Summer Commencement

            BOCA RATON, FL (August 11, 2006) - Florida Atlantic University conferred more than 1,600 degrees today during three commencement ceremonies held in the Carole and Barry Kaye Performing Arts Auditorium on the Boca Raton campus.  The new graduates join more than 96,000 alumni who have graduated from FAU since the university opened its doors in 1964.

            “Commencement is a magnificent opportunity for FAU’s students, faculty, staff and the extended FAU family to celebrate the great accomplishments of these graduates,” said FAU President Frank T. Brogan.  “With the tools acquired through their success at FAU, these students will have the opportunity to achieve great things.”

            Summer commencement highlighted the accomplishments of several outstanding graduates, including:

• At the age of 86, Nicolas Midelis has had plenty of reasons to quit college, but two goals kept him on an enduring path, a life-long ambition to earn a college degree and a desire to learn something new every day.  Following more than 50 years in the restaurant business, Midelis realized he still had not achieved his life-long goal of earning a college degree.  Today, he received his bachelor’s degree and now plans on pursuing a Ph.D. in American History.
• Arie Israel, who turns 18 on commencement day, came to FAU at the age of 14 to take dual-enrollment classes.  Soon after Israel began his bachelor’s degree studies at FAU, Dr. Yoram Sagher and other faculty realized he could and should place out of the degree program, so he was moved to a master’s program in mathematics.  Israel will graduate from FAU with a master’s degree in mathematics and transfer into the Ph.D. program at Princeton University, where he will study with Dr. Charles Fefferman, one of the world’s top math analysts. 
  
  

Some interesting statistics about the summer graduating class include the fact that 76 of the 1,587 degree recipients were over the age of 50.  The oldest graduate was the previously mentioned Nicolas Midelis at age 86 and the youngest was 16.  The graduates represented 58 countries.

            For the convenience of family members and friends who could not attend the commencement ceremonies, the proceedings were cybercast at www.fau.edu.

- FAU -