Wentworth Kicking Off Boston Commencement Season with Ceremony Saturday

Wentworth Institute of Technology will kick off graduation season this Saturday, once again paving the way as the first university in the Boston area to host a commencement ceremony in the calendar year.  

Roughly 400 Class of 2022 graduates will earn diplomas on April 30, while 15 members of the Classes of 1970 and 1971 will return to campus for honorary bachelor’s degrees, and two women who are no strangers to Wentworth will earn honorary doctorates.  

The Quad will play host to Spring Commencement with guests asked to be in their seats by 9:15am. Students will begin to process into the tent at 9:30am and the ceremony will officially start at 10:00am. 

It will be a homecoming for Annamaria Wenner as she earns a Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree. After 27 years at Wentworth, the former dean of students and vice president for Student Affairs left academia in January to co-create Beyond the GPA, which provides individualized coaching to high school students to empower their transition to college. She remains in touch with students, including those graduating this weekend.  

Wenner’s longtime colleague and friend, new Dean of Students Jenn Kosses, will don Wenner’s hood during the presentation.  

Yanel de Angel, managing director for Perkins&Will’s Boston firm, will deliver the keynote address and earn a Doctor of Architecture honorary degree. The first woman to lead the design firm’s Boston studio, de Angel is passionate about community resilience and environmental sustainability. She serves on the Advisory Boards of various institutions and is the recipient of many prestigious awards for her academic and design work. 

Additionally, de Angel has collaborated with Wentworth for more than 10 years and continues to support the university through ongoing project work and through the support of Women@Wentworth. 

Student speaker Coleman Conner is receiving a bachelor’s degree in Architecture and minor in Business Management, with a concentration in Emerging Technologies. He was president of the Wentworth Architecture Club and active in many other activities on campus. He plans to pursue a career as an architect and aspires to research the possibilities of architecture in outer space. 

Laurie B. Schaeffer is graduating from Wentworth with a Master of Science in Project Management and will sing the National Anthem on Saturday. She is the senior director of Enterprise Systems at Connecticut College and her husband, John Schaeffer, earned his master’s degree at Wentworth in Technology Management in 2018.  

Dean of Students Kosses will be marking her first commencement as Institute Marshal when she leads in the Class of 2022, while Susan Duffy, associate provost for Transformational Learning and Partnerships, will preside over the presentation of diplomas for the first time.  

Professor Gloria Ma (Engineering), Adjunct Instructor Sucharita Sen-Banerjee (Arts & Sciences), Associate Professor Youssef Qranfal (Computing and Data Science), Professor Rick Trilling (Management), and Associate Dean Mike Jackson (Engineering) will also serve as marshals.  

Chair of Wentworth’s Board of Trustees Gregory Janey, ’82, ’04, HON. ’17, will be the emcee for Spring Commencement and will also have the honor of bestowing honorary bachelor’s degrees upon members of Wentworth’s Classes of 1970 and 1971. The men earning those degrees originally attended Wentworth at a time when the Institute only offered associate degrees. For a number of years, the Black and Gold Society tradition has invited them back on their 50th anniversaries to collect an honorary degree.  

And when the Class of 2022 graduates take the stage to collect their degrees, they will do so with either School of Computing and Data Science Associate Dean En-Bing Lin, School of Engineering Dean Jose Sanchez, School of Management Interim Dean Illyas Bhatti, or School of Architecture and Design Dean Sedef Doganer. 

Computer Science student Endi Caushi will earn the Beatty Award. Named for past Wentworth President Dr. H. Russell Beatty, it is awarded to the undergraduate student with the highest overall academic achievement. 

Important Info. 

Caps and gowns may be picked up this Thursday, April 28 in the Beatty Hall Multi-purpose Room between 11:00am and 2:00pm and 4:00pm and 6:00pm. If you cannot pick up at this date and time, please email commencement@wit.edu to make arrangements.  

Students and guests should park on Saturday in the Parker Street Lot, located at 115 Halleck Street. Accessible spaces can be found in West Lot at 550 Huntington Avenue.  

For more information, visit Wentworth’s Commencement website, or try the new ChatBot for 24/7 help—opt in to receive notifications via text at 866-297-0699.