No one could blame Joe Matta, ’13, if a few years ago he would have had a tough time imagining himself attending an Ivy League university. The Bridgewater native and 1999 graduate of Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton, was working construction and delivering auto parts in the years before coming to BSU.

However, things changed after Mr. Matta stepped into an organic chemistry class that granted him entry to the world of research. “Suddenly, it all fell into place,” he said.

Stonehill College’s new president, Fr. John Denning, has ties to Bridgewater State. The Rhode Island native served as a campus minister at the Catholic Center from 1997 to 2000.

More than 500 graduate students received master’s degrees and certificates of advanced graduate study at the eighth Graduate Commencement Convocation.

May is National Mobility Awareness Month and alumnus, Josh Newey, is doing his part to get the word out.