Commencement 2012

Undergraduate Commencement Address by Ronan Farrow

Graduate Profiles

Farah Mohsen

After fleeing Baghdad with her mother and sister, Farah settled in Syria before coming to Dominican in 2008 via the Iraqi Student Project, a grassroots organization.  It offered Iraqi refugees in Damascus an opportunity to continue their education in the United States. Dominican agreed to provide a tuition waiver to Farah and help her find accommodation with host families in Marin County. In 2010, Farah interned at the UN with the Loretto Community, working on issues related to social justice, the rights of women & girls, poverty eradication, the rights of indigenous peoples and migrants, climate justice, and disarmament, peace and security. Today Farah participates in activities organized by the Iraq Veterans Against the War. She says she is representing Iraq, and trying to connect both veterans and Iraqis together in the Bay Area. She also is a representative of the Iraqi Student Project here and elsewhere in the country.

Katie Lake

Katie is living proof of persistence and perseverance. She arrived at Dominican from West Newbury, Massachusetts having never before laid eyes on the campus. Katie came with dreams of a career in dancing as a student in the University’s BFA in Dance program through Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet. That dream momentarily turned to a nightmare when in 2010, a doctor told her that because of serious injury to both of her hips, she would never dance again. Two years later, with determination, courage and much encouragement from her Dominican mentors, Katie has overcome her injuries by re-training herself and changing her technique so she can dance without pain. Once again she is free to express herself in the best way she knows how. This summer she will tour Switzerland and dance with Garrett Moulton Productions.

Reed Upson

Reed has been an inspiration to the faculty, staff, students and teammates of Dominican. Beginning his freshman year in the School of Business and Leadership as an average student, Reed grew and excelled in every possible way, serving as an example of what Dominican students can achieve. Last month he was named a Scholar-Athlete award winner for the second year in a row. Completing six internships, service as a Dominican student ambassador and participating in a variety of volunteer activities – all while maintaining magna cum laude status. He also leaves Dominican as the all-time leading scorer in the school’s history in lacrosse, leading the team from its “Bad News Bears” era to now being a nationally-respected lacrosse program. Reed, who recently accepted a full-time job offer at Warren Capital Corporation in Novato, has met every goal he and his mentors have set and shines as an example of success through the Dominican values.

Gabriel Navarrette

Gabriel is a first generation college student who has made a lasting impression. He is a Biological Science major with an emphasis in Molecular Cell Biology and a minor in Chemistry. He is graduating Cum Laude. While at Dominican he conducted research alongside his faculty mentors. He presented his breast cancer studies at the National Collegiate Honors Conference in Kansas. He presented work conducted as part of National Park Service project at the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research at Ithaca College in New York.  In Summer 2011, Gabriel served as a volunteer aid in a community hospital in Cambodia. Last year he also traveled with other Dominican students and faculty on an International Field Biology visit to Madagascar. He has received two offers from medical schools: Penn State and Indiana University. In the fall, he begins his studies at Indiana University.

Jasmine Martinez

A double major in Psychology and Women and Gender Studies, Jasmine was a Student Leader for the Service-Learning Program at Dominican, working as a tutor and mentor through the Marin County Community School. It helped her discover her passion for working with youth. Jasmine also participated in Alternate Spring Break service trips with Campus Ministry and was actively involved in the LeaderShape program, connecting her with student leaders from other colleges. She benefitted from the small classroom sizes and the strong sense of community at Dominican. Away from college, Jasmine serves as a volunteer and joins her mother in a Thanksgiving holiday tradition to drive and bring food and clothing to the homeless in San Francisco. Upon graduation, Jasmine will continue doing volunteer work because, she says, “Dominican has kindled my desire to serve and make a difference in my community.”

Peter Jean M. Bote Teodoro

Better known on campus at JT, he is a multi-talented Humanities and Cultural Studies major and music minor who has a passion for poetry. JT is a Filipino immigrant who moved to the United States and lived in motels in East Los Angeles until his mother joined him a year later. They moved to live with relatives in San Francisco before JT came to Dominican. He has been involved with the LeaderShape program, participated in the Global Ambassadors (including working with “Hope for African Children,” a non-governmental organization), helped revive Kapamilya, the Filipino-American student association, and traveled to Equador and Mexico to volunteer with Dominican faculty and fellow students. “Dominican’s become my home,” he says.  JT is co-founding member and vocalist for the band “Boondock Squad” and he has served as a poet-teacher at K-12 schools, continuation schools and juvenile detention centers.  JT was selected to give the students commencement address this year. His interests lie in food, farming, agriculture, sustainable initiatives, media, technology and he intends to seek a business internship while continuing his work as an artist.

Kari Young

Kari has been named the most outstanding player on Dominican’s women’s golf team yet she is most proud of the lifelong friends she has made on campus and the life-enhancing research she has done off it. The Biology major last year completed an undergraduate internship with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato. Kari, who was the captain on the women’s golf team, says being a student-athlete at Dominican has taught her valuable life lessons and helped her become a better student and leader. Last month, she traveled with the Dominican’s men’s golf team to the Pacific West Conference championships in Hawaii and has been accepted for Clinical Laboratory Science program internship in Australia this September.

Luke Webster-White

In 2011, the political science major was selected to participate in the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Congressional Internship Program. Luke spent fall 2011 semester in Washington, D.C. working for a member of the California congressional delegation. He was among 23-college students from throughout the state selected to participate in the 13th annual Panetta Institute Congressional Internship Program, a semester long public service experience created and sponsored by the Panetta Institute. The interns are selected based on an exemplary scholastic record as well as their interest in politics and service.  The program provides students with an intensive two-week orientation at the Panetta Institute before they begin their eleven-week internships with members of California’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C.

Thea Noonan

Thea is a Pathways Management major who began here in the Fall of 2009 as a transfer student. Thea has attended Dominican every semester while carrying a full-time load in addition to working as a caretaker for an elderly women suffering from Alzheimer’s. In addition-with what spare time she has-Thea started her own software development company in Sausalito. She has also volunteered for Habitat for Humanity as well as H.E.A.L. (Healthy Eating and Active Living) while maintaining a 3.73 gpa. She is an inspiration to her peers as well as the staff and faculty here at Dominican and sets an example for all students.

Keara Teeter

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Keara applied to five schools in four states and visited all of them before making her final decision. She fell in love with the Dominican after taking a tour of the campus – and the trails surrounding campus. A long-time cross country runner, she was a member of the university’s inaugural cross country team in 2010. She has been named the team’s “Most Outstanding” runner twice. In the summer of 2009, she was introduced to the concept of art conservation while researching this topic as part of an assignment.  She found the field so fascinating that after the assigned was completed, she independently began scheduling interviews with local conservators and quickly realized this was the career she had been searching for. After graduation, she will begin pursuing a career in art conservation, either at Buffalo State, New York University, or the University of Delaware.

Te Manu Whakatakai “Taki” Te Koi

Taki is a Biological Sciences major from New Zealand, who discovered Dominican during a high school basketball tour through Marin County with her Rotorua Girls School teammates. She spent her freshman year living with the family of Mike Dibley, a former Redwood High School basketball coach. She says the ideals of being part of a team have been the highlight of her Dominican experience and empowered her to involve herself in the campus community. Her energy, dedication, hard work have been evidenced as an active member of the Penguin Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Taki, the NAIA’s California Pacific Conference Freshman of the Year in 2009, last month was named Dominican’s Co Female Athlete of Year. She is returning home to attend a physical therapy school in either New Zealand or Australia and hopes to play professional basketball in the New Zealand Women's League.

Mark Lewis

Mark is one of the most recognizable and most involved students on the Dominican campus. He was the ASDU Student Body President as a junior who became the face and spokesperson for Dominican students during media coverage of the 2010 Gubernatorial Debate at Angelico Hall. The Business Administration major is also a four-year member of the Penguins' men's basketball team and a great leader. This season he was the team's co-captain and Coach's Award winner again and last month was named the Male Athlete of the Year. A Southern California native, Mark has accepted a full-time position as a marketing associate with Remedy Interactive in Sausalito after working there as an intern and part-timer during his time at Dominican.

Brandon Ernst

When Brandon was attending Marin Catholic High School, he never figured he’d be destined for a possible career in government that might land him someday in Africa or some other foreign country or even the United Nations.  He started out at Dominican as just an international business major but with very little interest in politics. But, after meeting other students who were majoring in political science, he eventually began to change his mind. He graduates with a Political science, international business double major. At Dominican, Brandon was selected to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative meeting at the University of California in San Diego, participated in the Institute for International Public Policy fellows program in Washington, D.C. and attended the ESCEM School of business and management in France through IIPP’s Junior Year Study Aboard program. He currently is employed full-time at an Apple store and plans to attend graduate school with a long-range goal of working for the UN.