Saint Joseph’s University Hosts 2014 Commencement Ceremonies

PHILADELPHIA (May 14, 2014) — Saint Joseph’s University will celebrate the Class of 2014 by conferring nearly 1,900 doctoral, graduate and undergraduate degrees at its Commencement ceremonies, Saturday, May 17. The graduate ceremony will be held at 9 a.m., and the undergraduate ceremony at 3 p.m. on the Maguire Campus. Those not able to attend commencement may view the ceremony on the University's live stream.

Frannie and James J. Maguire ’58 will receive Honorary Doctorates of Public Service at the undergraduate ceremony. The Maguires have dedicated their lives to higher education and their belief in the transformative power of an educational experience rooted in faith and justice. As a young man, Jim attended then-Saint Joseph’s College and has remained a loyal and impassioned alumnus. The Maguires’ generous financial support made possible the acquisition of the former Episcopal Academy campus, now the University's Maguire Campus, named in Jim’s honor. The author of Just Show Up (Maguire 2010), he is often quoted saying, “Saint Joseph’s changed my life.” He will speak at the undergraduate ceremony.

In 2000, the Maguires established The Maguire Foundation to help children and young adults obtain a Catholic education through scholarship support. The Maguire Scholars Program provides financial support to institutions in the “Maguire Network,” which includes Saint Joseph’s, along with 14 primary schools, 18 “Faith in the Future” high schools, and 17 colleges and universities.

David Hollenbach, S.J. ’64, Ph.D., will speak at the graduate ceremony, where he will receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. At the undergraduate ceremony, Fr. Hollenbach will be recognized, along with classmates from the Class of 1964, as a “Golden Hawk.” A member of the theology department at Boston College, he holds the University Chair in Human Rights and International Justice and serves as director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice. He received his Ph.D. in religious ethics from Yale University.

Fr. Hollenbach is the author of five books, editor/translator of several others and the author of numerous articles on topics ranging from refugee rights to Catholic teaching and social engagement, religious freedom, economic justice and globalization. He has been a visiting professor of social ethics at Hekima College of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, and at the Jesuit Philosophy Institute in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam.

“It is truly humbling to recognize these extraordinary honorees,” says University President C. Kevin Gillespie, S.J. ’72. “Their dedication to the greater good, that is to the magis, and to helping others stands as an inspiration to all.”