Penn to bid farewell to 248th class

For the undergraduate Class of 2004, four years of enduring studies culminate on Monday as its members graduate and move on from Penn.

In addition to the general ceremony, individual school-based graduations will be held either on Sunday or Monday after Commencement.

Penn seniors are excited to be graduating, and are looking forward to Monday's events.

"Penn has done a pretty good job of preparing us [for the real world] over the past four years," Wharton senior Justin Chang said. So "moving on is just the next step, nothing too big."

Fellow Wharton senior Aaron Wasserman's feelings on graduating were a bit more ambivalent.

"It's sort of bittersweet," Wasserman said. "You're excited for the future, but are leaving behind a tremendous past."

Soon-to-be graduates said they are also eager to hear the famed Bono speak at the ceremony.

"I think he's very different in terms of a speaker," Chang said. "It's interesting to see a celebrity come from a different point of view and give an academic speech."

Wasserman agreed.

"I'm excited because I just don't want a speaker that will be boring," Wasserman said. "I think Bono will be interesting, so I'm looking forward to it."

Bono, whose band U2 has sold over 120 million albums worldwide, has used his fame to draw attention to the crises of AIDS/HIV and poverty, notably in Africa. In the past several years, Bono has accelerated his campaign for awareness with initiatives such as Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa, known as DATA, as well as church, campus and town hall-touring with African AIDS activists across the U.S. Midwest. At Monday's Commencement, Bono will present the main address and receive an honorary doctor of Laws degree.

The ceremony will feature four other honorary degree recipients as well, including photographer Lee Friedlander and cell and molecular biologist Elizabeth Blackburn.

On Sunday, several of the larger individual school ceremonies will be held as precursors to Monday's general Commencement.

The ceremony for the College of Arts and Sciences graduates will be held at 7 p.m. on Sunday at Franklin Field.

The event will feature guest speaker Ron Allen, an NBC News correspondent and Penn alumnus.

Both the Wharton School undergraduate and graduate division ceremonies will also take place Sunday at Franklin Field, beginning at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., respectively.

At the afternoon event, Deutsche Post Chairman Klaus Zumwinkle will address the Wharton graduates.

In addition to the school graduations, Penn's Baccalaureate Ceremony will be held on Sunday at Irvine Auditorium.

With two sessions beginning at 1:30 and 3 p.m., the event will feature a 50-minute interfaith program including prayers, readings and music.

The Baccalaureate speaker for the event will be Jaroslav Pelikan, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University and visiting scholar at the Annenberg School for Communication.

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