Event Information
Ivy Tech Community College’s Valparaiso campus will honor its nearly 1,300 graduates at the Valparaiso campus with its annual commencement ceremony. Students earned more than 1,900 degrees and certificates during the 2021-2022 academic year.
The ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 14, outdoors, at the Valparaiso campus located at 3100 Ivy Tech Drive. The event will also be livestreamed on the Ivy Tech Valparaiso Facebook page at the following address: facebook.com/ivytechvalpo.
“I am very excited and proud of all of our students. They have worked so hard to come to this juncture to accomplish their degree,” said Aco Sikoski, chancellor of the Valparaiso campus. “This year’s commencement ceremony will be held on the beautiful Valparaiso campus for the second time. We look forward to seeing all the families and guests of students sharing this special day.”
In addition to honoring graduates, Ivy Tech Valparaiso will present this year’s Honorary Degree to Beth Anne Wrobel for her inspiring leadership as the CEO of HealthLinc Community Health Centers. Wrobel also serves on the Valparaiso campus’s board of trustees and is a dedicated visionary, focused on customer-centric healthcare and educating the next generation.
Zackary Bernhardt will be honored as this year’s Distinguished Graduate. Bernhardt graduated high school in 2013 and enlisted into the U.S. Army serving over three years. He is a surgical technology graduate and is also a member of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society.
Matthew Urbaniak will be honored as Distinguished Alumnus. Urbaniak works as a senior operations supervisor at Peoples Gas Light and Coke in Chicago. He is a family man, happily married for the past 21 years and currently raising four children. His passion in life is to motivate his employees and develop them into capable leaders.
Also, the special guest speaker will be Bill Hanna, executive director of the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation. Hanna has served as the president and CEO of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority and as the city manager and deputy mayor for the City of Valparaiso. During his military service, Hanna served as a U.S. Army paratrooper and head trainer and guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington D.C.
