Ivy Day, graduation are this weekend

Ivy Day, in which the college’s outstanding seniors are recognized, will be at 7 p.m. Friday in Memorial Hall. Graduation for those earning graduate degrees will be at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in Memorial Hall. The ceremonies for those earning bachelor’s degrees will be at 10 a.m. in the Armstrong Gymnasium.

The college will have approximately 240 graduates.

Dr. Sam Rankin, who was president of Chadron State 1986-1998 during a period of great progress at the college, will speak at the graduate degree ceremonies. During the past eight years, Rankin has been a Board of Trustees professor of history at Chadron State. He is beginning a phased retirement this summer.

The speaker at the undergraduate ceremonies will be Keith Blackledge, who was executive editor of the North Platte Telegraph for 25 years and continues to write a weekly column for the newspaper.

Blackledge also will receive the college’s Distinguished Service Award. He served a six-year term on Chadron State’s governing body, the Nebraska State Colleges Board of Trustees, including a year as chairman. He also has been chairman of the Nebraska Humanities Council, Nebraska Public Radio Foundation, Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission and the Nebraska State Historical Society.

Many honors will be presented and a king and queen will be crowned during Ivy Day, which dates back to 1920 at Chadron State.

The royalty candidates were selected from the seniors who are members of Cardinal Key and Blue Key National Honor Societies. The queen candidates are Mary Andrews of Rapid City, S.D., Shannon Anslover of North Platte, Erin Legerski of Rock Springs, Wyo., Avery Shaw of Potter and Kelsey Stevens of Yankton, S.D. The king candidates are Kyle Demoray of Chadron, Zach Nesbitt of Imperial, Jack Sides of Hot Springs, S.D., Corey Wasserburger of Fort Worth, Texas, and Scott Wewel of Ainsworth.

Shaw and Wasserburger will be the orators representing Cardinal Key and Blue Key, respectively.

The faculty greeter will be Carola Winkle, who has taught music at Chadron State the past 20 years.