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Friends, Newman mint 1,400 new grads

BY KAREN SHIDELER

The Wichita Eagle

Lisa Fuson wants to be a therapist at a community health center.

Kiley Randolph wants to teach grade school.

Nigora Yakubova wants to be a school principal.

Saturday, they were among more than 1,000 area students who said goodbye to their college careers in commencement ceremonies for Newman University and Friends University.

Newman kicked off the college graduation season with a ceremony for its 349 candidates Saturday morning at Central Community Church.

Fuson got a master's degree in social work, and she'll start a job hunt Monday. "I'll have a lot to pay back in loans."

Randolph has already started looking. She earned a communications degree a few years ago from Wichita State University, then enrolled at Newman after being encouraged by co-workers. Her new bachelor's degree is in elementary education, and she already has interviewed at Wichita Collegiate School -- where she saw a 3-inch-tall stack of applications and heard, "but we're only choosing four."

Yakubova will finish work on her master's in education this summer, then move to Lawrence with her boyfriend, Charles McGill. She is from Uzbekistan and ended up at Newman as the result of an online search. Once she was here, the Internet is how she met McGill. "I heard there's some nice guys in Kansas when I was back home," she said, joking.

Some students aren't job-hunting yet. Instead, they'll continue their studies.

Daniel Bryan earned his bachelor's in theology and will go for his master's. Amanda Stanley earned her bachelor's in biology and will go to medical school. They are this year's winners of the Harvey J. and Leona J. Ablah Award, awards of $2,500 given to students who exemplify Newman's mission and spirit and who show promise to make a strong and positive contribution to society.

At the Friends commencement Saturday afternoon, where 1,067 students were candidates for degrees, faculty members were among those honored:

• The W.A. Young Award for Teaching Excellence went to Michelle Robertson, assistant professor of marriage and family therapy.

• The Jan LaFever Adjunct Faculty Teaching Award went to Curtis Wilson, adjunct professor in Friends' master of arts in teaching program. He also is a kindergarten teacher at Franklin Elementary School.

• The Faculty Emeritus Award went to G. Robert Dove, professor of biology. He is retiring from Friends after 44 years.

The Friends ceremony, at the Kansas Coliseum, featured guest speaker Denny Day, a literacy consultant. He urged graduates to see the world through the eyes of a child.

"It is through the eyes of our children that we will see the future respond to the leadership of our elders," he said.

Reach Karen Shideler at 316-268-6674 or kshideler@wichitaeagle.com.