(News)

Chancellor Curtiss E. Porter conferred degrees on 35 new Penn State graduates from the city's Greater Allegheny Campus during a commencement ceremony Saturday in the Wunderley Gymnasium.

Also included were the campus' first two graduates to receive a bachelor of science degree in nursing, Heather Bolton and Robin Pratt.

The keynote speaker was Esther Bush, president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Pittsburgh.

A native of Pittsburgh, Bush has headed the city's Urban League since 1994. Bush is a graduate of Morgan State and Johns Hopkins universities and serves as an adjunct faculty member in Pitt's School of Social Work.

The nursing graduates are the first from a program jointly administered by Greater Allegheny Campus and the university's Fayette Campus outside of Uniontown.

Created in 2008, the program allows registered nurses to attend classes one night per week, completing six credits per semester toward a bachelor's degree, according to Linda Curinga, campus spokeswoman.

In January, Pratt and Bolton created a website of public health information as part of their capstone course and also held twice-monthly information sessions in the Student Community Center to provide other students with information on topics such as flu, heart disease, communicable diseases and managing stress.

Bolton, of Westmoreland County, is a graduate of Westmoreland County Community College, while Pratt, who lives in the McKeesport area, is a graduate of Community College of Allegheny County.

Photos from the university's commencement ceremony are available at the Penn State website.

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In Other News: A local Penn State sophomore who maintained a 3.87 grade-point average while playing both basketball and baseball is this year's recipient of the John Egli Outstanding Student-Athlete Award.

Mike Hyland received the award Monday, according to Linda Curinga, Greater Allegheny Campus spokeswoman.

The award is annually presented by the Penn State University Athletic Conference in honor of John Egli, head basketball coach at Penn State from 1955 to 1968 and a former assistant professor. As coach, Egli's teams went to the NCAA tournament in 1955 and 1965 and to the National Invitational Tournament in 1966.

Egli was also Penn State's first coordinator of athletics for the university's regional "Commonwealth Campuses."

Hyland was chosen from more than 1,300 student-athletes at Penn State's 14 regional campuses, Curinga said.