Embry-Riddle Commencement

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Arizona Congressman James Kolbe to Speak at Embry-Riddle Commencement

James Kolbe Prescott, Ariz., April 20, 2006 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott campus will graduate 266 students in its Spring Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 6.

The commencement ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. on the softball field on the main campus. The public is invited to attend.

The graduating class is composed of students from across the United States and also includes graduates from Brazil, Canada, Italy, Kenya, New Zealand, Peru, Sri Lanka, South Korea, and Ukraine.

Graduates in this spring’s class will go on to careers with such companies as Boeing, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, the National Aeronautical and Space Administration, the National Transportation and Safety Board, American Eagle Airlines, Southwest Airlines, as well as governmental agencies and the private sector.

Embry-Riddle’s graduation ceremony also includes the commissioning of Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) graduates as second lieutenants into the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army, and the U.S. Marine Corps. This spring the Air Force will commission 42 men and women into the long blue line.

U.S. Rep. James Kolbe from Arizona’s Eighth Congressional District will deliver the commencement address.

Kolbe was first sworn into Congress in 1985, becoming the first Republican to represent southern Arizona since statehood in 1913. He represents the people of the greater Tucson area, eastern Pima County, all of Cochise County, and parts of Pinal and Santa Cruz counties. Kolbe is one of eight members of Congress from Arizona.

He attended the Capitol Page School in Washington, D.C., in 1960 and went on to attend Northwestern University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1965. He received his Master of Business Administration in economics from Stanford University in 1967. Prior to receiving his M.B.A., he studied abroad with the International School of America.

He served in the U.S. Navy from 1967 to 1969, including active duty in Vietnam.

Congressman Kolbe actually his political career as a U.S. Senate page, sponsored by Sen. Barry Goldwater (Ariz.) from 1958 to 1960. He served in 1972 as a special assistant to Gov. Richard Ogilvie (Ill.) for Capitol Programs. From 1973 until 1984 he was vice president of Wood Canyon Corp., a land-planning and development firm in Tucson, Ariz.

Congressman Kolbe served in the Arizona State Senate from 1976 to 1982, where he was majority whip and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1985, he was elected to the House of Representatives as a congressman from Arizona.

He currently serves as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, chairing the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs, and is a senior member of both the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, and Judiciary and the Subcommittees on the Interior.

Congressman Kolbe was elected to Embry-Riddle’s Board of Trustees in April 1978. He serves as a member of the Committees on Trustees in addition to the Finance and Student Life committees.

Congressman Kolbe actively serves on several boards, including the Transatlantic Policy Network (chairman); the U.S./Mexico Interparliamentary Group (chairman); the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts’ Board of Trustees; and the International Republican Institute’s Board of Directors.

Embry-Riddle, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates more than 32,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Extended Campus at more than 130 centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East, and through distance learning.