Rider Confers 410 Degrees to Graduate and College of Continuing Studies Students

Editor's Note: The following is a news release issued by Rider University.

Rider University proudly bestowed the honorary Doctor of Humane Letter upon Aaron Gast, Ph.D., trustee emeritus on the Board of the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation of Princeton, at the University’s graduate and College of Continuing Studies ceremony on Thursday, May 10.

In addition to Gast, Rider President Mordechai Rozanski conferred 410 degrees to students who had successfully completed their studies. Among these are graduate students receiving master’s degrees and undergraduates from Rider’s College of Continuing Studies, who earned their bachelor’s and associate degrees.

Rozanski congratulated the evening’s graduates, who made up part of Rider’s total graduating class of 1,347, who join an alumni family more than 50,000.

“In awarding you your degree, we share with you that sense of mastery, pride and joy that comes with reaching a hard-earned goal,” said Rozanski, the University’s president since 2003. “Not only have you made it today, but I’m confident that you can look forward to more success in the future. The knowledge and skills you have attained at Rider, and particularly, the skill of continuous learning, are lifetime assets that will help you better manage both the opportunities and challenges you will encounter.”

Michael Rosati ’10, M.B.A. ’12, who earned his Master of Business Administration, presented the student address. Rosati, a less-than-stellar student at Hamilton High School West, served seven years in the U.S. Coast Guard before enrolling at Rider to earn his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as a member of the Broncs’ wrestling program.

“Perhaps one of the most influential things I have learned was five years ago on the wrestling mat. It was to ‘always move forward, don’t stop moving forward,’” Rosati said. “As time went on, I began to understand that this simple wrestling tactic also applied to academics. When these academic issues would distract me, my coaches would simply emphasize that you can’t change the past, but you can always move forward.”

Aaron Gast, Ph.D., recently retired after more than 32 years of service on the Board of the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation of Princeton. Since its inception in 1979 through the end of the 2011 academic year, the Newcombe Foundation has provided more than $17 million in grants for mature women students at 58 colleges and universities in the United States.

In 1981, Rider became the first school in the United States to receive funds from the Newcombe Foundation, and since then, it has received more than $1.2 million in scholarship support.

One-third of this total was used to establish an endowed scholarship fund for sacred music students at Westminster Choir College. The remaining two-thirds has funded scholarships for 600 mature women who have graduated from Rider University. This year, Rider will confer degrees on 10 proud Newcombe Scholars.

In December 2011, on the occasion of Gast’s retirement from the Newcombe Board, the Foundation made a major gift to Westminster’s proposed new academic building in support of that project. Gast’s wife, Mickey Gast, a Westminster alumna and member of Rider’s Board of Trustees, is co-chair of the Westminster Campaign Committee.

Aaron Gast served as the pastor to Charlotte Newcombe at the First Presbyterian Church of Germantown in Philadelphia during the final 11 years of her life.

During his time at First Presbyterian, Gast guided the congregation in instituting 30 new programs, organizations and features in the church’s life. Significant among them were tutoring sessions and Daily Vacation Bible School. He is also the former dean of the Conwell School of Theology at Temple University. Currently, he is a member of Westminster Choir College’s Dean’s Advisory Council, Westminster Building Campaign Committee and Legacy Society.

Gast earned a Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College in 1950, a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1953 and a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh in 1956. He was honored with the Doctor of Humane Letters from Davis & Elkins College in 1981, the Doctor of Divinity from Ursinus College in 1982, and the Doctor of Law from Bloomfield College in 1987.

Meet Student Speaker Michael Rosati ’10, M.B.A. ’12 (Lawrence, N.J., formerly of Hamilton, N.J.):

An admittedly uninspired student at Hamilton (N.J.) High School West who once simply walked away from the school’s wrestling team, Rosati now finds himself with more than a decade of honorable service to the United States Coast Guard, a 3.6 grade point average in his master’s program, and a list of accomplishments on the Lawrence Township campus that set him apart from many of his peers.

http://www.rider.edu/news/2012/05/08/keep-moving-forward

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