[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/JHE building.jpg” caption=”Students in the Faculties of Nursing and Engineering as well as Medical Radiation Sciences Program graduate today.”]Over 1000 McMaster students will graduate today in two convocation ceremonies held downtown at Hamilton Place's Great Hall.

Three hundred and eighty-nine graduands from the Faculty of Nursing and 86 graduands from the Medical Radiation Sciences Program will receive their degrees at 9:30 a.m. and 642 students from the Faculty of Engineering will graduate during the afternoon ceremony at 2:30 p.m.

“I am very proud to be a McMaster Engineering graduate,” says Dan Borelli, the Faculty of Engineering's Valedictorian. “For me, receiving the iron ring a few months ago represents a huge milestone in my life. It is not only a symbol of the engineer's duty to the profession, but it is also a symbol of a goal accomplished.”

Students won't be the only ones receiving degrees during today's ceremonies, however. Honorary degrees will be conferred upon Yasmin Noorali Amarsi, Foundation Dean, College of Nursing & Midwifery in East Africa's Aga Khan University, and Elizabeth Grandbois, ALS activist, during the morning's ceremonies and Gilles Patry, former president of the University of Ottawa and Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division will receive their degrees during the afternoon engineering ceremony.

The Nurses Pinning Ceremony will follow the morning convocation at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. The Medical Radiation Sciences' reception will occur immediately following their ceremony, and the Faculty of Engineering reception will occur between 4:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the Hamilton Convention Centre's Wentworth Rooms B and C.