Lindenwood Commencement Excercises

Lindenwood University will hold its annual Commencement exercises Friday and Saturday, May 13 and 14, at the Family Arena in St. Charles. Noted St. Louis entrepreneur Mike Roberts will be the keynote speaker at the Saturday Commencement ceremony, while longtime sports broadcaster Bob Ramsey will deliver the Baccalaureate address on Friday evening.

Undergraduate Commencement will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 14, while Baccalaureate and Graduate Commencement will be at 7:30 p.m., the night before. Both ceremonies will be at the St. Charles County Family Arena, at 2002 Arena Parkway in St. Charles and are open to the public.

The ceremonies will include students who graduated between August 2010 and September 2011. Overall, 3,697 graduates are eligible to participate, with 1,698 bachelor’s degrees, 1,851 master’s degrees, 104 specialist degrees, and 44 doctoral degrees. Participating in the undergraduate ceremony will be 1,018 graduates, while 768 are slated to participate in the graduate ceremony. Totals in all areas are new school records, as they have been every year for the past several years.

Roberts, a Lindenwood alumnus from the class of 1971, has been a successful entrepreneur, public official, author, and real estate developer. He founded the consulting and construction management firm Roberts & Associates with his brother, Stephen Roberts, as well as a highly successful broadcasting and wireless business. Roberts has received several awards, including the prestigious Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award along with his brother in 2007. They currently own and manage 11 hotels, primarily in the Midwest and the South.  Mike Roberts has served on the boards of several companies and other organizations and is a nationally renowned speaker. He is the author of Action Has No Season: Secrets and Strategies to Gaining Wealth and Authority.

Ramsey graduated from Lindenwood University in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting and has over the ensuing years established himself as one of the most respected sports broadcasters in St. Louis. He has an extensive resume as a commentator and play-by-play announcer for a number of college and professional teams, including the St. Louis Cardinals, and is currently co-host of the Fast Lane show on ESPN Radio, 101.1 FM, with Randy Karraker and D’Marco Farr. He has also worked as a TV news anchor in St. Louis and Louisiana. He has won two Emmy Awards and five Missouri Sportscaster of the Year Awards.

Lindenwood University, founded in 1827, is an independent liberal arts university offering 84 undergraduate degree programs and 37 graduate programs in diverse areas of study ­in traditional and accelerated formats. Lindenwood operates a residential campus in historic St. Charles, as well as 10 extended sites throughout the St. Louis region.