Elizabethtown College announces Commencement speakers, honorary degree recipients

Traditional, SCPS students graduate May 16

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Don Kraybill

ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (05/12/2015)(readMedia)-- Elizabethtown College celebrates two graduations Saturday, May 16.

At 11 a.m., traditional students take center stage for the College's 112th Commencement. The 514 graduates boasts 77 earning their Master of Science degrees, 126 with Bachelor of Arts degrees, 282 with Bachelor of Science degrees, 15 who have earned their Bachelor of Music degrees and 14 with bachelor's degrees in social work.

Commencement is held in The Dell, with the inclement weather location as Thompson Gymnasium.

E. Roe Stamps IV, founder of the Stamps Leadership Scholars, is speaker for the traditional ceremony, and the first three Elizabethtown College Stamps Scholars will graduate with the Class of 2015.

At 4 p.m. Saturday, the College's School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS) graduates 178 in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center. Forty will have earned their MBA, 111 graduate with bachelor's degrees and 27 with associate degrees.

Speaker for the College's SCPS graduates is Dana Chryst, CEO of The Jay Group.

So inspired by the impact that university experiences had on their lives, Roe Stamps and wife, Penny, chose to support exceptional students in their pursuit of higher education by creating programs that offer enriched educational experiences for Stamps Leadership Scholars. Elizabethtown is one of those schools.

The hope is that today's Stamps Leadership Scholars become mentors and supporters of the next generation of promising young students.

Stamps is a private investor and cofounder of the Boston-based private investment company Summit Partners. He is a former lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve, an industrial engineering graduate of Georgia Tech and an MBA graduate from Harvard Business School.

He and his wife have devoted significant time and resources to philanthropic causes and, through the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation, formed 20 years ago, have shown deep commitment to education, supporting projects and scholarships at 35 universities nationwide. The Foundation has created innovative scholarship programs currently supporting 425 students, including three in the 2015 E-town graduating class. Fifteen additional scholars are underclassmen.

Stamps is a trustee emeritus of the Georgia Tech Foundation and a trustee at the University of Miami, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and several other distinguished organizations. At Georgia Tech, he served the Foundation for more than16 years.

He earned the Joseph Mayo Pettit Alumni Distinguished Service Award -- the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the highest award conferred by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. He was inducted into Georgia Tech's Engineering Hall of Fame in 2001.

In 2010, Stamps was honored by the American Red Cross South Florida Region as the Humanitarian of the Year. In 2012, he was honored by Harvard Business School, receiving its most prestigious award, the Alumni Achievement Award.

Stamps will receive an honorary degree from Elizabethtown College along with Hatfield Foods' Phil Clemens, an active member of the College's High Center; and Don Kraybill, retiring Senior Scholar at the E-town's Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies.

SCPS speaker, Dana Chryst, literally grew up with The Jay Group. As the daughter of founder J. Freeland Chryst, she started with the company as a child, featured in client ads, and learned the business from the shop floor. An industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience, she officially joined the company in 1981 as an account executive and held several key positions within the organization. In 2001, Chryst purchased controlling interest in the company and assumed the role of CEO.

Chryst provides leadership in casting vision, setting strategy, ensuring excellence in execution and building the culture of The Jay Group, one of the leading outsource providers of marketing logistics, contact center services and E-commerce fulfillment services in the United States. Her expertise lies in the areas of marketing logistics, customer experience, e-commerce, supply chain management and continuous process improvement.

The Jay Group represents many industry-leading companies including Johnson & Johnson, Heineken USA, CertainTeed FMC Corporation, Healthy Directions, Investor Place Media and iRobot. Under Chryst's leadership, the organization has earned industry awards and was recognized as one of Inc. 5000's Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies in America. The Jay Group also was named one of the Top 100 Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania for four years in a row.

An active community member, Chryst has been the recipient of several prestigious honors including the Athena Award and Volunteer of the Year awards from the American Heart Association and Lancaster YMCA.

On the business front, Dana was recognized with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and Central Penn Business Journal's Pennsylvania Top 50 Women in Business. She also served upon and held top leadership positions on numerous nonprofit and for-profit boards.

Chryst has served on panels and has spoken to large groups about her experience as a business leader. Engagements have included speaking for Millersville University's and Linden Hall School's graduations, serving on the Leadership Transitions Panel for the S. Dale High Center for Family Business at Elizabethtown College, being a featured speaker at the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce Excellence Exchange, Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Diversity Conference, Armstrong World Industries Leadership Conference and Rotary.

Chryst earned her bachelor's degree in business administration from Millersville University in 1981.

She will receive an honorary degree from Elizabethtown College at the SCPS commencement ceremony.

Elizabethtown College, located in historic Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is a private coed institution offering more than four dozen liberal arts, fine and performing arts, science and engineering, business, communications and education degrees. Learn more: http://www.etown.edu/about/

Media Contact:

Elizabeth Harvey

Communications Manager

Office of Marketing and Communications

Elizabethtown College

harveye@etown.edu

717-361-6412 (o)

717-371-2631 (c)

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