United States Senator Charles E. Schumer, New York Assembly Majority Leader Paul A. Tokasz and Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent Marion Cañedo delivered keynote addresses at Buffalo State College's 130th commencement ceremonies, held Saturday, May 11, 2002, in the college's Sports Arena.

Two baccalaureate ceremonies were held - Schumer spoke at the 10 a.m. and Tokasz at the 2 p.m. - which saw 1,725 students who completed their studies in December 2001 or May 2002 or will complete them in August 2002 receive their degrees. Cañedo spoke at the college's 6 p.m. master's hooding ceremony and received a Distinguished Alumna Award at that ceremony, which saw 632 students who completed their studies in December 2001 or May 2002 or will complete them in August 2002 receive their degrees or certificates of advanced study.

Brenda Williams McDuffie, College Councilmember emeritus, received a College Council Medal, and Ross B. Kenzie, community leader, philanthropist and College Council Chair emeritus, received a SUNY Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the 10 a.m. ceremony.

Rocky Reeves, captain of the Buffalo State College hockey Bengals and winner of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's 2002 College Hockey Humanitarian Award, was also recognized.

Kelly Carvalho, who received her bachelor of arts, gave the student address at both baccalaureate ceremonies.

Edna Lindemann, founding director of Buffalo State's Burchfield-Penney Art Center, received a President's Distinguished Service Award at the 2 p.m. ceremony. Also at that ceremony, Norma Sutter received the Distinguished Alumna Award and Timothy Zgliczynski received the President's Medal for Outstanding Undergraduate Student and was recognized as the winner of a SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence, as were Pooja Tivary and Paulette M. Wydro.

Julie Ann Reszczenski, another Buffalo State College student who won a SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence, was recognized at the 6 p.m. ceremony. Also at that ceremony, Jeanne M. Burns received the President's Medal for Outstanding Graduate Student and give the student address.

Schumer is in his first term representing New York state. A member of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; the Judiciary Committee; the Energy and Natural Resources Committee; and the Rules Committee, he represented the Ninth Congressional District in Brooklyn and Queens for nine years before his election to the Senate in 1998. Since then, he has established an Economic Development Initiative to attract new business and financial resources to Upstate New York and was instrumental in bringing affordable air service to several upstate cities, including Buffalo.

A leading advocate of access to high quality public education, Schumer has pushed for making college tuition tax deductible for most American families and has developed a "Marshall Plan for Teachers" to provide incentives to attract the best and brightest to teaching.

Tokasz was first elected to the New York State Assembly in a special election in 1988. A 1971 graduate of Buffalo State (he obtained his master's degree in education), he taught elementary school children in the City of Buffalo for nine years before serving as deputy county clerk in charge of the Erie County Auto Bureau, clerk of the Erie County legislature and first deputy county clerk in the Erie County Clerk's Office.

Actively involved in many civic and social organizations, Tokasz serves as a member of many organizations, including the Cheektowaga Chamber of Commerce and the Firemen's Association of New York State. A past member of the Buffalo State College Council, Tokasz was also a member of the World University Games Founding Committee and a member of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Stabilization Committee.

As a member of the Western NewYork Delegation, Tokasz has worked tirelessly to ensure tdered in the annual budgets and in the State Legislature. As a result of his efforts, the New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC) selected Tokasz as one of its outstanding legislators in 1989. He has also received numerous awards, including the 2000 Golden Trumpet Award from the Firemen's Association of the State of New York, the University of Buffalo Legislative Action Committee Award, the 1999 William Hoyt Advocacy Award, the 1999 Friend of Education Award, and the NYS Athletic Administrators Association's Distinguished Service Award. Assemblyman Tokasz has also been recognized by the Environmental Planning Lobby and other organizations for his passionate support of important environmental issues.

Cañedo was appointed superintendent of the Buffalo Public Schools in March 2000. A proponent of innovative academic initiatives and programs, she began her tenure with the Buffalo Public Schools as a teacher and also served as a principal, supervisor of elementary education, director of early childhood/academic programs and reading, assistant superintendent for standards and teaching effectiveness and interim associate superintendent.

Internationally recognized in the areas of creative thinking and creative problem solving, Cañedo is cofounder of Buffalo's "Invention Convention," a showcase of student inventions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a national benchmark program. During her tenure as a classroom teacher, she earned statewide recognition as New York State Teacher of the Year in 1979, and won a National Excellence in Education Award. She earned her master's degree in elementary education in 1974 and acertificate in advanced studies in curriculum and supervision in 1981 from Buffalo State College.

Lindemann, a former Buffalo Public School art teacher, began her career at Buffalo State as an assistant professor of art education. She also served as director of development and cultural affairs and assistant to the director for planning and development. Lindemann, who earned her doctorate from Columbia University, helped design much of the college's interior and exterior spaces during the 1960s when Buffalo State experienced extensive expansion. She was instrumental in preserving pieces from landmark Buffalo structures and incorporating them into campus structures.

Lindemann served as director and curator of the then-Burchfield Center when it was founded 1966. She retired in 1985. Listed in Who's Who in American Art, Lindemann has been named a Citizen of the Year by The Buffalo News, and has won an American Association of University Women Achievement Award.

McDuffie, president and CEO of the Buffalo Urban League, served as a member of the Buffalo State College Council for seven years. Before joining the Urban League in 1998, she was president and CEO of the Buffalo and Erie County Private Industry Council, where she also served as director of planning.

McDuffie earned her bachelor of science degree from Buffalo State, and served on the College's Foundation Board of Directors. She is president of Leadership Buffalo and a member of the board of directors for the Western New York Foundation and the Greater Buffalo Savings Bank. She has been named a Buffalo News Citizen of the Year, a United Way Volunteer of the Year, and has received an NAACP Community Service Award and Business First Forty Under Forty award.

Kenzie served on the Buffalo State College Council for 19 years, 17 of them as its chairman. Since his retirement from the council, he has continued to work tirelessly for the college. He and his family established an endowed fellowship to help the college's graduate art conservation department meet a $2 million challenge grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and endowed the Ross B. Kenzie Family Presidential Scholarship Fund to support minority students as partofthe All College Honors Program.

A well-known business leader, Ken a regional bank with assets of $3 billion, in 1979 as president and chief operating officer and presided over its metamorphosis into Goldome, a national financial services institution with assets of more than $15 billion. He served as chair and chief executive officer of Goldome until his retirement in 1989. Before that, the 1953 West Point graduate was executive vice president and director of Merrill Lynch and Co. He is a past chairman of Millard Fillmore Hospitals, and past director of the Greater Buffalo Development Foundation and the Business Council of the State of New York. A past chairman of the Greater Buffalo Chamber of Commerce, he was that organization's Western New Yorker of the Year in 1985. Kenzie has received a Citation Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, a Distinguished Citizen Award from the Niagara Frontier Council of Boy Scouts of America and numerous other awards.

Distinguished Alumna Sutter earned her bachelor of science degree in elementary education from the then-State Teachers College in 1948 and a certificate of advanced study in 1959. In her first teaching job - in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Evans - she was responsible for six grade levels. She went on to teach in the Buffalo and Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda school districts, and served as principal at the William Kaegebein Elementary School in Grand Island.

A lifetime member of the Buffalo State Alumni Association, she is a founding member of the college's Peterson Society and serves on its Planning Giving Committee. She has established three major charitable gift annuities to build the Class of '42 Scholarship Fund and the Kenneth and Norma Sutter EndowedScholarship Fund inElementary Education, and established an endowed award for excellence in student teaching.

Hockey player Reeves' activities have included volunteering for the Concerned Ecumenical Ministry Soup Kitchen, the national Condom Safe Sex Week promotion, Take Back the Night, the Carlysclub Cancer Fundraiser and the Buffalo State Health Fair. He also organized and implemented a Holiday Rummage Sale for the Homeless, helped distribute books to needy children through the college's Project FLIGHT literacy program and organized and implemented the "Aid Buffalo" Food and Clothing Drive for the United Way.

Reeves, who received his bachelor's degree last December and is working toward his master's, has maintained a 3.30 GPA while majoring in health and wellness. Named to both the SUNY Athletic Conference All-Academic Team and Commissioner's list twice, Reeves has also been nominated for the Buffalo State College President's Medal, the Chancellor's Award for Academic Excellence, the Outstanding Senior Health and Wellness Major Award and the Outstanding Health and Wellness Major Community Service Award.

Carvalho was chosen as the student speaker through a campus-wide nomination and selection process. A public communication major, her campus involvement includes serving as the 2001-2002 student representative on the Buffalo State College Foundation Executive Committee, the vice president of the Buffalo State chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America and Web site developer for the college's Campus Services Department.

She is the recipient of the Public Relations Society of America 2001 Codispoti Technology Section Grant and also received the 2001 Buffalo Zoological Gardens Photography Award.

Zgliczynski, who will receive the President's Medal for Outstanding Undergraduate Student and will be recognized for having won a SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence, achieved a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average. A member of Kappa Delta Pi, the National Education Honor Society, he received the 2002 Horace Mann Award for Outstanding Undergraduate in Exceptional Education, the highest award given by the department, and served aspresident of the statewide chapter of theStudent Council for Exceptional Childret and treasurer of the Buffalo State chapter.

Zgliczynski worked as a research assistant for Project Success - a federally funded grant program for research and training on disability issues in higher education. Active in Special Olympics, he volunteers with People Inc. and the Cheektowaga Youth Board.

Chancellor's Award winner Wydro, who received a National Institute of Mental Health Regional Summer Research Fellowship in experimental psychology, has remained on the dean's list for academic excellence for four consecutive semesters.

A research assistant for Buffalo State's Center for China Studies, she is a recipient of the SUNY Scholarship for Academic Achievement, the Buffalo State Bridge the Gap Scholarship, the Minority Empire Scholarship and the David Vernon Bullough Outstanding Senior in Psychology Award. A volunteer at the Erie County Home and Infirmary and the YWCA North Street residence, she has tutored third-grade students in reading at the Union East Elementary School and worked with emotionally or behaviorally challenged seventh- and eighth-grade students at Gateway-Longview.

Tivary, another of Buffalo State's four Chancellor's Award winners, is a member of the All College Honors Program. She is also active in Phi Upsilon Omicron, Mu Chapter, the National Honor Society for Nutrition and Foodscience Students and the National Honor Society for Minorities in Hospitality. An All-American Scholar, she serves as a resident assistant and University Police student assistant coordinator. She has raised money for World AIDS Day, the March of Dimes, the United World Day of Caring and victims of Sept. 11. She also organized and coordinated BuffaloState's Indian Earthquake Relief Fund Raiser last spring, raising $3,500.

Active in her community, Chancellor's Award winner Reszczenski is a fifth-grade special education teacher at Gilmore Elementary School in North Tonawanda, teaching students with learning and physical disabilities in an inclusive classroom. Since 1997, she has been a volunteer with the Skating Association for the Blind and Handicapped and is active in Deaf Adult Services.

Reszczenski organized a food and supply drive for the American Red Cross to assist victims and volunteers in New York City after Sept. 11, 2001. She was selected by Buffalo State's Exceptional Education Department to receive the 2002 Horace Mann Award for Outstanding Graduate Student.

Burns, winner of the President's Medal for Outstanding Graduate Student, began teaching students with behavioral disorders after she graduated from Buffalo State with a bachelor of science degree in education in 1999. She earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average in her graduate studies and was recognized for her achievements with the Bernard Yormak Award for Outstanding Graduate Student in Exceptional Education. Now teaching at Pioneer High School, her alma mater, she works with students with special needs in a biology inclusion class.