NCU to Honor 2006 Graduates

One Hundred Thirty-One Graduates Earn College Degrees Online Through NCU

June 6, 2006 Prescott, Ariz. — Northcentral University, an online university celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2006, is pleased to announce that it will honor131 graduates this spring. The graduation ceremony is slated for Friday, June 16 at Prescott’s Hassayampa Inn.

NCU has 3,250 Learners worldwide — in 49 of the 50 states and in 52 different countries — and each Learner is engaged in earning their bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in business and technology management, education, or psychology through NCU’s innovative 100% online educational model that emphasizes active self-learning. Including this year’s graduates, the number of Learners who have earned degrees at NCU now totals 425.

According to Dr. Donald Hecht, NCU President and Founder, “Most of the graduates planning to attend the ceremony are traveling a long distance to receive their hard-won diplomas. Twenty-eight Learners have indicated that they plan to attend the June 16th ceremony with four planning to join us from Taiwan.”

The Taiwan graduates are traveling from 8 time zones and a world away from Prescott, Ariz. Making a shorter journey, but still coming quite a distance are Learners from Massachusetts, New Jersey, Florida, Virginia and South Carolina. Graduates will also be attending from Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado and Laval, Quebec. The state of Arizona will be represented as well, with graduates driving up the hill from Phoenix, Mesa, Gilbert and Scottsdale.

As a 100% online university, NCU tends to attract adult students pursuing higher education while simultaneously fulfilling professional and family obligations. This results in a student body that is predominantly post-graduate, quite distinct from that of traditional “brick and mortar” schools. This is reflected in NCU’s Class of 2006.

NCU will award 16 Bachelor’s degrees — 10 from the School of Business and Technology Management and 6 from the School of Psychology. Seventy-four NCU Learners have earned Master’s degrees — 59 from the School of Business and 15 from the School of Psychology.

Forty-one NCU Learners will receive Doctorates. The School of Business is awarding 21 Doctor of Philosophy degrees; the School of Psychology, 17; and the School of Education — NCU’s newest school— is awarding one Doctor of Philosophy degree and two Doctor of Education degrees.

The commencement speaker is Dr. Edward Garten, Dean Emeritus at the University of Dayton, where he served for nearly twenty years as Dean of Libraries and Information Technologies. Garten serves on program and dissertation committees with the Ph.D. program in Educational Leadership at the University of Dayton. As principal of GartenAssociates LLC, he has consulted with over 100 colleges and universities since 1978 in such areas as strategic planning and institutional effectiveness, quality assurance processes and accreditation, online and distance learning, and fund-raising and institutional advancement.

Garten earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Higher Education at the University of Toledo in Ohio. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Methodist Theological School in Ohio, as well as a Master's in Library Science from Kent State and a Bachelor of Science in Education from Concord College (Ohio).

Garten has chaired over 50 comprehensive and specialized visits for The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association and chaired the team that recommended regional accreditation for Northcentral University. He has extensive experience as a grant proposal evaluator with the U.S. Office of Education and has published extensively in several areas of higher education, library and information technology, and distance learning. A clergyperson in The United Methodist Church, he holds specialized training in group process and conflict resolution. He lives in Dayton, Ohio and serves as a Lead Faculty in Higher Education at NCU.

Additional remarks will be delivered by Claudia Santin, Ed.D., NCU’s provost and chief operating officer; Donald Hecht, Sc.D., NCU president; and Sandra Womack, Ed.D., NCU Board of Directors chair. Richard Jones, Ph.D., research professor, Psychology, will deliver the Invocation.

The Commencement ceremony, in the Marina Room of the Hassayampa Inn, will begin at 2:00 p.m. A reception follows the ceremony to honor the graduates, their families, and friends.