students smiling getting photos taken for commencement

Commencement is a culmination of everything you have accomplished,

and we look forward to celebrating with you! 

 

Mount St. Joseph University


May 2024 Commencement Ceremony

FRIDAY, May 10, 2024
Baccalaureate Mass
Mater Dei Chapel

 SATURDAY, May 11, 2024
Commencement Ceremony
Harrington Center  

10:00 a.m. Graduate Ceremony

2:30 p.m. Undergraduate Ceremony

COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
 Sister Helen Prejean

COMMENCEMENT LIVESTREAM LINK:
www.youtube.com/user/MSJ1920

ORDER REGALIA - JOSTENS

https://www.jostens.com/apps/store/customer/1048896/Mount-St-Joseph-University/

 

 

female graduate smiling and holding cap.

Leading the Way

Aliyah Huff, '21, School of Business

"After becoming an MSJ student, what surprised me most about the Mount was everyone's willingness to help me succeed, and also how many opportunities there were for me to develop my professional skills."

Apply for Graduation

Graduation candidates are required to complete the graduation application with their program directors or department chairperson. The completed application for graduation is submitted to the Registrar's Office. The certificate or degree graduation application must be on file in the Registrar's Office by the posted deadline dates. Contact your program director or department chairperson to complete the application.

COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER

Helen,-credit-Scott-Langley-2.png

Sister Helen Prejean, Ministry Against the Death Penalty Commencement Speaker, Honorary Degree Recipient 

Sister Helen Prejean is known around the world for her tireless work against the death penalty. She has been instrumental in sparking national dialogue on capital punishment and in shaping the Catholic Church's vigorous opposition to all executions.

Born on April 21, 1939, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she joined the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1957. After studies in the USA and Canada, she spent the following years teaching high school, and serving as the Religious Education Director at St. Frances Cabrini Parish in New Orleans and the Formation Director for her religious communtiy.

In 1982, she moved into the St. Thomas Housing Project in New Orleans in order to live and work with the poor. While there, Sister Helen began corresponding with Patrick Sonnier, who had been sentenced to death for the murder of two teenagers. Two years later, when Patrick Sonnier was put to death in the electric chair, Sister Helen was there to witness his execution. In the following months, she became spiritual advisor to another death row inmate, Robert Lee Willie, who was to meet the same fate as Sonnier. 

After witnessing these executions, Sister Helen realized that this lethal ritual would remain unchallenged unless its secrecy was stripped away, and so she sat down and wrote a book,

Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States.

Dead Man Walking hit the shelves when national support for the death penalty was over 80% and, in Sister Helen's native Louisiana, closer to 90%. The book ignited a national debate on capital punishment and it inspired an Academy Award winning movie, a play and an opera. Sister Helen also embarked on a speaking tour that continues to this day.

Sister Helen works with people of all faiths and those who follow no estabilished faith, but her voice has had a special resonance with her fellow Catholics. Over the decades, Sister Helen has made personal approaches to two popes, John Paul II and Pope Frances, urging them to establish the Catholic Church's position as unequivocally oppposed to capital punishment under any circumstances. After Sister Helen's urging, under John Paul II the catechism was revised to strengthen the church's opposition to executions, although it allowed for a very few exceptions. Not long after meeting with Sister Helen in August of 2018, Pope Francis announced new language of the Catholic Catechism which declares that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person, with no execeptions. 

Today, although capital punishment is still on the books in 30 states in the USA, it has fallen into disuse in most of those states. Presecutors and juries alike are turning away from death sentences, with the death pentalty becoming increasingly a geographical freak. Sister Helen continues her work, dividing her time between educating the public, campaigning against the death penalty, counseling individual death row prisoners, and working with murder victims' family members. Sister Helen's second book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, was published in 2004; and her third book, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey  in 2019.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lead the Way with the Heart of a Lion

With Commencement approaching, we want to help you with next steps to create your network of opportunity.

students walking and smiling at camera after commencement ceremony

Next Stop: Your Future

You've worked hard, and a myriad of opportunities await you. Looking to request your transcripts? View transcript information here to learn more.
Career Center staff member assisting student in office.

Professional Development Resources

The Career & Experiential Education Center offers assistance to students and alumni by facilitating job assistance and connections with employers, providing graduate school advising, and helping you explore and consider the wide range of personal and professional choices open to you! Stop by our office or contact the career.center@msj.edu to connect with us.
student hugging person at commencement

You're Always Welcome Home

At the Mount, you are always welcome home! Stay connected with us with our alumni events and happenings as you keeping climbing higher. We can't wait to see where life will take your next.