May 17, 2017

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MILWAUKEE — Marquette University's 136th Commencement will take place on Sunday, May 21, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, 1001 N. 4th St.

Marquette will provide a live webcast of the Commencement ceremony.

Sister Maria Marciano, O.P., a Dominican sister from Brazil, will be the ceremony's keynote speaker. A civil and hydrology engineer who is educated in economics and business administration, Sr. Marciano has worked on behalf of the poor in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Chris Jenkins, Associate Director of University Communication, will be available for interviews on Sunday morning before the ceremony to discuss Commencement and this year's graduating class. Photographers are welcome to capture b-roll and still images during the ceremony, as long as they do so in an unobtrusive manner. A mult box will be available to broadcast outlets for audio.

The following graduates are available for interviews this week. It may be easier to find time with them during the week instead of on Sunday. Please contact Marquette's Office of Marketing and Communication to arrange a day and time:

• Mogen Frenkel
  Mogen and his family emigrated from Uzbekistan when he was 3 years old, fleeing religious persecution. As a student at Homestead High School, Mogen founded a tutoring club to help students who were trying to learn English, drawing from his own experiences trying to learn the language. Mogen passed the club on to fellow Homestead students before coming to Marquette. After graduation, Mogen will continue school at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
• Brad Kempka
  Brad is the battalion commander of Marquette's Army ROTC Golden Eagle Battalion. A first-generation college student, Brad will be commissioned as an Active Duty 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army's Medical Services Corps. Brad has volunteered with the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin, Stars and Stripes Honor Flight and blood drives. He also was involved in local film production and participated in films accepted into the Milwaukee Film Festival as a camera operator, script writer and actor.
• Ian Kloehn
  This spring, Ian ran the Boston Marathon in two hours, 48 minutes – fastest among the race's visually impaired group of runners. Ian, who is legally blind, has run a sports camp for visually impaired students the last two summers at Marquette. He will begin medical school in Kansas City after graduation.
• Alex Mohs
  Alex is this year's senior speaker, and will deliver a speech during Sunday's ceremony. Her message to fellow graduates is inspired by her participation in several service projects during her time at Marquette, including spending a summer in Nicaragua working for a nonprofit organization building a school and water supply infrastructure for a village. She will work at Columbia St. Mary's after graduation.
• Marissa VanBeekum
  At age 18, two months before beginning college at Marquette, Marissa became a living liver donor. Her donation helped save the life of her aunt and godmother, Mariola. Marissa is graduating from the College of Nursing this weekend, and her aunt will be there for the College of Nursing's individual ceremony on Saturday night at the Al McGuire Center. After graduation, Marissa will be working at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville as a part of their nurse residency program. She aspires to work in transplant and eventually become a nurse transplant coordinator.
• Additionally, Laura Kestner-Ricketts, the director of Marquette's Career Services Center, is available this Thursday and Friday to discuss the employment outlook for the Class of 2017.

For assistance on the morning of the event, please contact any of the following:

• Chris Stolarski, senior communication strategist – (414) 235-6060 – mobile