Onward, Ever Onward

The Bradley family cheered nearly 1,000 graduates at the university’s annual spring commencement ceremony the Peoria Civic Center. 

Student speaker Mia Rivecco, a creative writing and organizational communication graduate from Taylorville, Ill., reflected on changes during her Bradley Experience. While a presidential election, Chicago Cubs’ World Series win and Bradley’s Business and Engineering Convergence Center made headlines, students were busy in their own lives’ transitions.

“Maybe you don’t have it all figured out. I sure don’t, but I know that I’m moving in the right direction,” she said. “We’ve taken this time to become the ‘us’ we want to be. I am confident that the Class of 2019 is going to walk out these doors today ready to make the world a little bit better.”

Nursing graduate Molly Whiting will soon make a mark in her dream job. Inspired by a part-time job in the OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, the Pekin, Ill., pursued opportunities at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Though she was turned down for a summer internship at the clinic, she persisted and applied for job openings. The effort paid off, as she will join the clinic’s cardiac surgery, heart and lung transplant intensive care unit later this summer.

“I’ve always wanted to work there,” she said. “It feels good to get the job because it’s everything I worked for the past four years.”

Game design graduate Matt Allers, of West Chicago, Ill., will be one of the first Bradley interns at Deep Silver Volition, a game development company in Champaign, Ill. The internship will be a valuable first step toward pursuing a career in Los Angeles. Allers attributed his professional preparation to long hours on creative tasks and growing pains as design lead for a senior capstone project.

“I was programming, designing and doing all the things I’d have to do in the field,” he said. “Because of that, I was making mistakes I otherwise would’ve made in the real world. Getting such practical experience made Bradley worth it.”