ST. JOSEPH’S COLLEGE ANNOUNCES COMMENCEMENT PROGRAMS

April 20, 2018

PATCHOGUE AND BROOKLYN, N.Y. – April 20, 2018 – St. Joseph’s College (SJC) is pleased to announce that Donald R. Boomgaarden, Ph.D., will serve as this year’s speaker for both of its annual commencement ceremonies. Dr. Boomgaarden began his tenure as SJC’s eighth president in July 2017. SJC Brooklyn’s commencement ceremony will take place on Sunday, May 20 at 1 p.m. at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge. SJC Long Island’s Commencement will be held on Wednesday, May 30 at 3 p.m. at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. 

Prior to joining SJC, Dr. Boomgaarden served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Scranton in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Before his time at Scranton, Dr. Boomgaarden was dean of the College of Music and Fine Arts and the David P. Swanzy Distinguished Professor of Music at Loyola University New Orleans from 2009 to 2014.

Dr. Boomgaarden earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas State University and master’s and doctoral degrees from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. He also attended the University of Vienna in Austria, where he was a Fulbright Scholar, and graduated from Harvard University’s Institute for Management and Leadership in Education. He has taught at the Eastman School of Music, Ithaca College Conservatory of Music, St. Mary’s College in Maryland, the Institut für Musikwissenschaft at the University of Salzburg in Austria, Loyola University Maryland and Loyola University New Orleans. 

Dr. Boomgaarden, a concert pianist and country fiddler, has enjoyed a long career as a performing artist. In high school, he studied with Blaise Montandon at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. At Texas State, he studied piano and composition with Russell Riepe. Later, at the Eastman School, Dr. Boomgaarden studied with Ellen Martin and Thomas Donohue. He has performed at master classes with Gustav Leonhardt and Paul Badura-Skoda, and continues to perform as a soloist and accompanist in Europe and the United States.

For more information about SJC, visit sjcny.edu.

ABOUT ST. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE
St. Joseph’s College has been dedicated to providing a diverse population of students in the New York metropolitan area with an affordable education rooted in the liberal arts tradition since 1916. Independent and coeducational, the College provides a strong academic and value-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, aiming to prepare each student for a life characterized by integrity, intellectual and spiritual values, social responsibility and service. Through SJC Brooklyn, SJC Long Island and SJC Online, the College offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in more than 50 majors, special course offerings and certificates, affiliated and pre-professional programs.