Commencement is near. Less than a month of way and thousands of students will be walking across the stage to retrieve their diplomas. The one thing that students have been dying to hear in the weeks leading up to graduation is who the commencement speakers will be. Well, the news is out.
For Kean University’s Undergraduate Commencement the speaker will be Brandon Stanton (the creator of the photo blog Humans of New York, otherwise known as HONY), and Captain Mark Kelly (a retired astronaut, United States Navy Captain, and engineer) will be the commencement speaker for the Nathan Weiss Graduate College Commencement.
Stanton is a renowned photographer who began HONY in September of 2010. Since its launch it has garnered over 17 million followers on Facebook and 4.7 million on Instagram. At first HONY was intended to be a 10,000 photo blog of New Yorkers, and instead became a blog telling the many stories New Yorkers, as well as people who are incarcerated, Iranians and more.
Before starting HONY, Stanton studied history at the University of Georgia. He traded bonds at Chicago Bond of Trade until he lost his job three years later.
Kelly was born and raised in West Orange, New Jersey and is married to Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in 2011. In 1996, Kelly began his career as an astronaut. He is known to be one of two people to have visited the International Space Station on four different occasions.
Kelly has also written a book titled Gabby: A Story of Courage, Love and Resilience which became a #1 New York Times best-selling book. Not only that, but Kelly is also the founder of the company World View Enterprises, a space tourism company. So for those graduating, congratulations! Just weeks away from the big day! Remember that Undergraduate Commencement will be held at the Prudential Center in Newark on Thursday, May 19, 2016, at 8:30 a.m. and the Graduate Commencement will be held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark on Tuesday, May 17, 2016, at 7 p.m.
For more information about graduation, please visit the Kean University commencement website.
