Dubay to give commencement speech

April 21, 2005
By Alvaro Macias
Staff Writer

The weather is changing for the better, and so is the future for many St. Ambrose students who will be graduating on Sunday, May 15. 

For some, this will be the last day of the college experience for the rest of their lives. The families gather, cheers go out as names are called out one by one, and the commencement address provides the final motivation to take on the challenges ahead.  

This year, the executive director of Koinonia Farm, Bren Dubay, has the task of giving the commencement address to the graduating class.

“We look for people who can motivate the graduates, whose lives have been of service, and whose accomplishments are noted and respected,” executive administrative assistant to the president Helen Stineman said.

Koinoia Farm is an international Christian community located in Americus, Georgia. It was founded in 1942 and organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Jubilee Partners and the Prison and Jail Project were created there. 

According to St. Ambrose University President Edward Rogalski, Ms. Dubay has earned recognition and national prominence as a human rights activist. 

Dubay has an extensive writing background, receiving much recognition for her full-length plays.  She received special recognition for the works Tom and Darla, Howling at the Moon Through Ice Cubes in a Glass, and Secrets.  In 1991 Secrets was considered for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. 

Ms. Dubay has taught workshops in fundraising, marketing, arts management, acting, and playwriting.  Her work has taken her around the world to Ireland, China and most recently, Israel.

Her qualifications alone should be enough to motivate students to make the best out of that diploma that has taken years to get.  Her words will help set the stage for the story of the rest of the lives of the graduating class. 

The commencement ceremony starts at 10:00 a.m. at the Mark of the Quad Cities in Moline.

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