W. P. Carey School to graduate one of largest-ever classes

<p>More than 1,500 students will graduate from the nationally ranked W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University this week. This marks one of the largest graduating classes ever for the school, with about 800 undergraduates and about 750 graduate students receiving diplomas. The commencement ceremonies will feature a movie executive as a keynote speaker, two Fulbright Scholars and more than two-dozen students from the school’s Executive MBA Program in Shanghai, who are making a long trip over from China to hear President Barack Obama speak at the main ASU graduation event.<br /><br />“We have a very impressive graduating class this year,” says W. P. Carey School of Business Dean Robert Mittelstaedt. “We are proud to show that we can educate more students than ever before, while still maintaining a standard of excellence recently recognized through top national rankings for the school’s undergraduate program, MBA program and business research productivity.”<br /><br />The students from China are graduating from one of the most prestigious Executive MBA programs in that country. The W. P. Carey School of Business Executive MBA Program in Shanghai includes exceptional faculty from ASU and other top universities, such as Yale University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University. The program helps build global ties, while educating senior-level executives and government officials in charge of policy-making that can influence and improve the lives of millions of people in China.<br /><br />Two W. P. Carey School of Business graduating seniors were also recently named Fulbright Scholars. Economics Major Alexandra Anderson has interned for Sen. Jon Kyl and Maricopa County Superior Court, and she has volunteered with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. She will go to South Korea as a Fulbright Scholar. Economics and Global Studies Major Uyen Tran will go to Vietnam. She has interned for the Arizona Governor’s Office and serves as local community president for a large student-run organization that helps young people explore and develop their leadership potential.<br /><br />The graduate-level convocation keynote speaker this year is Christopher J. Cookson, president of Sony Pictures Technologies. He holds more than 50 U.S. patents, including several pertaining to DVDs. He has an MBA from Arizona State University.<br /><br />The W. P. Carey School of Business undergraduate commencement ceremony will take place Thursday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., and the graduate ceremony will run Saturday from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Both events will be held at the Wells Fargo Arena on Arizona State University’s Tempe campus.</p>