Commencement

Commencement is a culmination of everything you have accomplished,

and we look forward to celebrating with you! 

Congratulations to our class of 2024! We are so proud of each and every one of you. Once a Lion always a Lion! Watch the 2024 commencement recap video below:

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Apply for Graduation

Graduation candidates are required to complete the graduation application with their program directors or department chairperson. The completed application for graduation is submitted to the Registrar's Office. The certificate or degree graduation application must be on file in the Registrar's Office by the posted deadline dates. Contact your program director or department chairperson to complete the application.

Commencement Speaker

Sister Helen Prejean, Ministry Against the Death Penalty Commencement Speaker, Honorary Degree Recipient 

Sister Helen Prejean is known around the world for her tireless work against the death penalty. She has been instrumental in sparking national dialogue on capital punishment and in shaping the Catholic Church's vigorous opposition to all executions.

Born on April 21, 1939, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she joined the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1957. After studies in the USA and Canada, she spent the following years teaching high school, and serving as the Religious Education Director at St. Frances Cabrini Parish in New Orleans and the Formation Director for her religious communtiy.

In 1982, she moved into the St. Thomas Housing Project in New Orleans in order to live and work with the poor. While there, Sister Helen began corresponding with Patrick Sonnier, who had been sentenced to death for the murder of two teenagers. Two years later, when Patrick Sonnier was put to death in the electric chair, Sister Helen was there to witness his execution. In the following months, she became spiritual advisor to another death row inmate, Robert Lee Willie, who was to meet the same fate as Sonnier. 

After witnessing these executions, Sister Helen realized that this lethal ritual would remain unchallenged unless its secrecy was stripped away, and so she sat down and wrote a book,

Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States.

Dead Man Walking hit the shelves when national support for the death penalty was over 80% and, in Sister Helen's native Louisiana, closer to 90%. The book ignited a national debate on capital punishment and it inspired an Academy Award winning movie, a play and an opera. Sister Helen also embarked on a speaking tour that continues to this day.

Sister Helen works with people of all faiths and those who follow no estabilished faith, but her voice has had a special resonance with her fellow Catholics. Over the decades, Sister Helen has made personal approaches to two popes, John Paul II and Pope Frances, urging them to establish the Catholic Church's position as unequivocally oppposed to capital punishment under any circumstances. After Sister Helen's urging, under John Paul II the catechism was revised to strengthen the church's opposition to executions, although it allowed for a very few exceptions. Not long after meeting with Sister Helen in August of 2018, Pope Francis announced new language of the Catholic Catechism which declares that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person, with no execeptions. 

Today, although capital punishment is still on the books in 30 states in the USA, it has fallen into disuse in most of those states. Prosecutors and juries alike are turning away from death sentences, with the death pentalty becoming increasingly a geographical freak. Sister Helen continues her work, dividing her time between educating the public, campaigning against the death penalty, counseling individual death row prisoners, and working with murder victims' family members. Sister Helen's second book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, was published in 2004; and her third book, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey  in 2019.

Alumni Commencement Speakers

Joe Gutzwiller '11 - Graduate Commencement Speaker

Joe Gutzwiller became Chief Financial Officer at Cinfed Credit Union on January 1, 2024.  Based in Cincinnati, Cinfed is in the top 15% of credit unions nationally in terms of size and serves more than 38,000 members across the Tri-state. Mr. Gutzwiller has been with Cinfed for 22 years, starting as a teller and progressing through a number of positions including mortgage lending manager and controller.  

He earned a bachelor’s degree in Accounting at Mount St. Joseph University in 2011. He completed his degree as a non-traditional aged student taking primarily night and weekend courses.

A native of Cincinnati, he is a graduate of Elder High School. He currently resides on the west side of Cincinnati with his wife Laura and three children, Jackson, Bailey, and Julianna.  Laura is also an alum, having received her master’s degree in Education from Mount St. Joseph University in 2007.  She has taught 1^st grade at C.O. Harrison Elementary (located in Delhi) since 2006.  

Dan Sutton '08, '95 - Undergraduate Commencement Speaker

Dan Sutton is President and CEO of Kemba Credit Union.  He joined Kemba in 1999, previously serving as Assistant Controller, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Operating Officer. Under Dan’s leadership, Kemba has grown to nearly $1.7 billion in assets and serves 130,000 members. Dan is currently Treasurer of Kemba’s Board of Directors, Chairman of the Ohio Credit Union League’s Advocacy Action Committee, Chairman of the West Chester-Liberty Chamber Alliance Board of Directors, and serves on several other boards.  Dan holds a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership and a bachelor’s degree in Accounting, both from Mount St. Joseph University.

Dan currently resides on the Westside of Cincinnati with his wife, Becky, and has two children, Michael and Emily.

Lead the Way with the Heart of a Lion

With Commencement approaching, we want to help you with next steps to create your network of opportunity.