ESU Announces Spring 2015 Graduate Commencement Speakers

Posted by: admin on May 1, 2015, No Comments

East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania recently selected the spring 2015 graduate commencement speakers.

Joanne Zakartha Bruno, J.D., provost at East Stroudsburg University, is the keynote speaker for ESU’s graduate commencement ceremony to be held Friday, May 8 at 7 p.m. in Koehler Fieldhouse. She was named provost and vice president of academic affairs at by President Marcia G. Welsh, Ph.D., in January.

Before Provost Bruno came to ESU, she worked in the office of academic affairs at New Jersey City University for close to 20 years. There, she had the opportunity to lead two successful Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) self-studies; coordinate three Periodic Review Reports; support grant initiatives through federal and state grants; recruit and hire faculty with an increased emphasis on research backgrounds; and lead the university’s recent strategic plan initiative.

Provost Bruno looks forward to “sustaining the momentum at ESU to meet the president’s vision to really focus on students first and make ESU the best university in the State System.”

With an overall mission to provide excellent education for students in mind, Provost Bruno looks to help provide the landscape where faculty and students can engage in exciting, learning opportunities.

Sarah Batool Khan, who is receiving her M.Ed. in professional and secondary education, will be the student speaker for graduate commencement. Khan completed student teaching at J.T. Lambert Intermediate School and Stroudsburg High School during the spring semester. She was an elected senator in both Student Senate and University Senate and was a member of the Graduate Advisory Council and the Student Faculty Conduct Board. She was a part of Feminist Alliance, Muslim Students’ Association, and Desi Student Organization. Sarah was also a trained Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Counselor-Advocate and volunteers as a night-shift hotline operator at Women’s Resources of Monroe County. Recently, Khan became ESU’s first student Fulbright Fellow. The Fulbright program is the flagship international education exchange program. Khan will be serving as an English teaching assistant and U.S. cultural ambassador in Turkey for nine months from mid-September to mid-June.

Khan dreams to open an all-girls’ school in rural Pakistan, with an attached vocational training center where men and women can learn sustainable skills and trades such as sewing, entrepreneurship, farming, information and data management, accounting, and more. She gives credit to her family, friends and professors for what she has accomplished so far. She is forever indebted to her ummee (mother) and abu (father), and her best friend and sister, Atiba and her brothers. She also wishes to thank her grandmothers and grandfathers for creating a path of excellence, love, and kindness for her, even if she was not always there to witness it. . Khan resides in Stroudsburg, Pa.