Threatening skies didn’t cloud the high spirits of some 4,500 students, parents and friends gathered on the Quadrangle for the University of North Carolina Asheville’s commencement ceremony Saturday morning. Keynote speaker Frank Rhodes, one of America’s most respected educational leaders, encouraged the 576 graduating seniors to believe that they can transform the world.

"Some might say, 'We are the graduates of the post-9/11 era, we are the graduates of the war in Iraq, we are the graduates who live under the cloud of North Korea's nuclear weapons. This is a time when dreams and heroes die. . . . What hope can we have in an age such as this?' And I answer, 'Every hope.' "

"Today is an occasion of hope, for three reasons," Rhodes said. "First, because with your graduation the world is reborn -- the skills, the energy, the devotion that you will bring to our society will make the world a new place. And second, the knowledge you will bring, the skills you will bring, humanely and wisely applied, can move the world. And third, because for all our frustrations and for all our failures, humanity is capable of redemption."

Rhodes, who was president of Cornell University for 18 years, is one of America's most respected educational leaders. A native of Great Britain and a geologist by training, he has served as chairman of the National Science Board, the American Council on Education, the Association of American Universities and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Rhodes was one of four accomplished individuals who received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters at the ceremony. Others to receive honorary degrees were former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Judge Henry Frye; Yolanda Moses, an acclaimed cultural anthropologist and president of the American Association for Higher Education; and Hugh Morton, environmental advocate, photographer and steward of Grandfather Mountain.

Three of UNCA’s top students received special awards at the ceremony.

Jacob Berkowitz, an environmental studies major from Spartanburg, S.C. received the William and Ida Friday Award for Community Service. While carrying a challenging academic load, Berkowitz pursued research on arsenic in pressure-treated lumber, volunteered with Clean Water of North Carolina, and co-founded the Better Asheville Recycling Coalition. He is heading to graduate school at the University of California-Riverside, where he was awarded a Dean's Fellowship to pursue a master's degree in soil and water sciences.

Marasi Mwencha, a chemistry major from Kenya, received the A.C. Reynolds Award and the Thomas D. Reynolds Prize for Campus Service. Mwencha was praised for reinventing UNCA's International Student Association, starting a Student Investment Club, tutoring in chemistry and leading an intermural soccer team into two years of championships. His undergraduate research explored chemical compounds that demonstrate anti-cancer activity. A December graduate, Mwencha works in the Washington, D.C. area as a pharmaceutical researcher.

Michael Roach, a chemistry major from Greensboro, was named the recipient of the Manly Wright Award, presented to the student who is first in scholarship. Roach, who had a 4.0 GPA, conducted research with UNCA Professor Bert Holmes on replacement chemicals for CFCs. He was also the first UNCA soccer player to be named to the NCAA Academic All-American Soccer Team and was named Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2002. The recipient of a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, Roach will start a five-year Ph.D. program in science and engineering at the University of Virginia this coming fall.

The Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award went to Kevin Moorhead, chair and associate professor of environmental studies. Moorhead, who joined the faculty in 1992, has taught in the First Year Experience Program, the Honors Program, supervised student internships and participated in a faculty exchange program in England. He is noted for integrally involving students in his ongoing assessment and restoration of the Tulula Wetlands Mitigation Bank, a 250-acre tract of land in the extreme far western part of North Carolina. This project has become a model program for wetland restoration projects in other regions.