A crowd of more than 20,000 graduates, guests, faculty and administrators gathered in Delaware Stadium the morning of May 27 to celebrate the Class of 2006 during the University’s 157th Commencement.

Conferred were 245 doctoral, 775 master’s, 123 associate’s and 4,240 bachelor’s degrees earned during the previous academic year. The Class of 2006, whose members ranged in age from 18-70, included seven graduates celebrating birthdays the day of Commencement and eight sets of twins.

Prize-winning author, essayist and commentator Ron Chernow addressed the new graduates, urging them to seek success but also to use adversity as an opportunity to grow in self-awareness and personal fulfillment.

“Today, getting into and through college has become the ultimate survivor show in America. It’s much tougher than anything seen on reality TV,” he said. “All of you here today have completely met this challenge, and I would like to applaud your efforts and your achievements.”
Chernow, whose biography of Alexander Hamilton was lauded as one of the best books of 2004, said that highlighting the successes of past graduates and figures of American history is the staple of many a commencement speaker.

“In America, success is the very oxygen we breathe in our cradle, and I have no personal quarrel with that,” he told the graduates. “I hope that all of you have dazzling good fortune when you step across that magical threshold that separates college from your future lives.”
Chernow cautioned, however, that despite the winning combination of talent and luck that most graduates take with them across the threshold, it is not unusual for many setbacks to occur on the road to success.

“I tell you, the road will not be smooth,” he said. “It will not resemble an interstate highway system but will seem more like a maze of narrow, backcountry roads filled with small stones, big boulders and many unforeseen detours.”

Learning from possible setbacks and negotiating these detours can shape character and lay the foundation for eventual success, Chernow said. “I would like to stress that your success in life will be shaped by how you deal with failure.”

The Commencement audience welcomed alumni representatives from the classes of the 1930s to the 2000s, as the ceremony also marked the official passage of the Class of 2006 from being students at UD to becoming members in the Alumni Association, with a membership of 140,000 in 81 countries around the world.

Leading the alumni delegates were new graduates Dalit Gulak and Thomas Isherwood, recipients of the Alumni Association’s 2006 Emalea Pusey Warner and Alexander J. Taylor Sr. awards, which recognize the outstanding senior woman and man.

Gulak, a foreign languages and literatures major and 2005 Truman Scholar, also is a Dean’s Scholar in Hispanic culture and medicine. She will be joining the Nurse Midwifery/Women’s Health Program in the School of Nursing and Health Studies at Georgetown University this fall.

Isherwood, an international relations major and 2005 Truman Scholar, was one of two UD students who won 2006 Marshall Scholarships. He also earned a master’s degree in political science from UD and plans to study and conduct research in modern Middle Eastern studies at Oxford University in the United Kingdom beginning this fall.

Also honored at Commencement for achieving the highest grade point average of 4.0 in full-time study at UD were Ryan Charles Burk, EG; Jessica Ann Hall, AG; Ryan Eric Morgan, BE; Vivek Prashant Patel, AS; and Andrea Lang Schrijvers, AS.

Among the graduate degree recipients were brothers Plamen Iossifov and Martin Yosifov from Bulgaria, both of whom received doctorates in economics. The brothers’ involvement with the University began in 1992, when Iossifov enrolled in the graduate-level program run by UD at the University of Economics in Varna, Bulgaria. After graduating in 1996, he was accepted to the master’s and, later, the doctoral programs in Delaware.

Yosifov witnessed his brother’s positive experience with the program and decided to enroll at UD as well.
Commencement 2006 also was an occasion for other awards.

Dr. Charles M. Smith, former president and chief executive officer of Christiana Care Health System, was awarded the Medal of Distinction at the College of Health Sciences Convocation. He led Delaware’s major health-care provider from 1996 to 2003, as it grew to be the third largest employer in the state, with more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

—Jerry Rhodes, AS ’04