'A great day to be a dragon'

Over 700 graduates celebrated Saturday afternoon from Tiffin University. Among the graduates were 387 undergraduate students, 315 graduation students with 16 global students from the Romania campus and 10 Ph.D. students. "We hope your lives have transformed while here at Tiffin University," Lillian Schumacher, president of Tiffin University, said. "You made a positive impact on us." Students within the twentieth master of business administration cohort who graduated from TU's campus in Bucharest, Romania were honored during the ceremony, in addition to the inaugural Romanian bachelor of business administration cohort and its first doctor of philosophy graduation were celebrated Saturday. Richard F. Wallman participated in the ceremony as the commencement keynote speaker. Wallman served as the senior vice president and chief financial officer of Honeywell Internationa, Inc. and AlliedSignal, Inc. (prior to its merger with Honeywell) from 1995-2003. He is also a 1972 graduate of Vanderbilt University with a bachelor of science degree and earned his MBA from the University of Chicago's Booth Graduate School of Business. During his talk, Wallman shared career lessons that he's learned throughout his own career journey. Those lessons are as follows: -Work for the smartest and most successful people you can. -View changing companies as a really important event. -Work for companies where you fit culturally. -Learn from difficult situations. -Careers don't go straight up, promotions, at times, don't come fast enough. Never give up. -Breadth beats depth. -Always focus on how you can improve. -You never know who might affect your career. -Learn from mistakes. -Work on your leadership skills. -Take assignments out of your comfort zone. -Set high standards. -Don't judge your career by others. -Focus on the elements of your career that you can control. Among those who earned a degree Saturday was Peyton Edwards of Ashland, who majored in law enforcement and minored in leadership studies. Coming to TU was easy for Edwards. "Finishing high school, I knew I wanted to be in law enforcement, so I just had to find a college that would prepare me," Edwards said. "I knew about Tiffin University because my older brother attended, but I also researched the college more. I found how renowned Tiffin was for Criminal Justice, so my choice was made. Tiffin was going to and has prepared me for a career in law enforcement." One of the biggest challenges he faced was maintaining a 4.0 GPA throughout his four years at TU. "My freshman year, I had given myself the challenge and goal to make the Dean's list every semester and graduate with a 4.0 GPA, he said. "This was no easy feat, I was involved with different on and off-campus activities. I was a student leader for both CRU, Overflow, and Fuse Student Ministries, along with being a Resident Assistant, Head Resident, Peer Mentor, and Game Room Attendant. I was busy but was able to push through the challenges to maintain and ultimately graduate with a 4.0 GPA as well as making the Dean's list every semester." Of all his "wonderful memories," Edwards said it would be winning the F.H. "CAP" Wilkinson Award. "This award was awarded to the top Criminal Justice student," he said. "This is one of my most cherished memories because I did not think I would receive the award, and it showed all my hard work paying off." "My dreams and goals of succeeding in college paid off," Edwards said. After graduation, he plans on working with the Colorado Springs Police Department. Where, as of right now, he is in the background/polygraph section of the hiring process.