She's the pride of Pickford!

NEWS RELEASE

LAKE SUPERIOR STATE UNIVERSITY

*************************** Author, former LSSU board member Sue Harrison to speak at LSSU commencement

Student respondent is Simon Purdy of Lansing

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mi - Best-selling author and Michigan native Sue Harrison (shown) will be the featured speaker during Lake Superior State University commencement ceremonies on May 1.

The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. in LSSU's Taffy Abel Ice Arena and will include a presentation by student respondent Simon Purdy, who is a sociology graduate from Lansing, as well as the announcement of this year's distinguished teaching award.

More than 500 graduates will be recognized with 600 degrees this year, with approximately 350 of those graduates participating in the ceremony.

Out-of-town friends and relatives may view the program through a streaming video connection.

Find out more at lssu.edu/commencement.

Best-selling author Harrison is a longtime friend of LSSU.

A 1968 graduate of Pickford High School, she went on to graduate summa cum laude from LSSU in 1971 with a bachelor of arts degree in English Language and Literature.

Later, prior to the publication of her novels, she was employed at LSSU as a writer and acting director of the public relations department, and as an adjunct instructor in creative writing and advanced creative writing.

She was named as the university's outstanding alumna in 1992, and served on the LSSU Board of Trustees from 1994 through 2002.

Harrison’s first novel, Mother Earth Father Sky, was published in the United States in 1990 by Doubleday (hardcover) and Avon (paperback).

The novel was a national and international bestseller, and in addition to numerous state and school awards, was selected by the American Library Association as one of 1991's Best Books for Young Adults.

Six more books followed.

Her novels have been honored as main selections and featured and alternate selections of the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Clubs and other book clubs in Europe and South America.

Her novel Sisu was selected as a National Accelerated Reader’s Book.

Harrison’s novels have been published in more than 20 countries and in 14 languages.

She is currently at work on a book set in Michigan’s Eastern Upper Peninsula.

Harrison is a Distinguished Service Award honoree of the Michigan Delta Kappa Gamma Educator’s Sorority.

She is a member of the Society of Midland Authors, the Authors Guild and the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association.

She is also a member of the Pickford United Methodist Church, where she serves on the administrative board.

She is a certified scuba diver, plays five musical instruments (none impressively, she jokes) and enjoys jamming with the Pickford Pickers, a bluegrass group.

Harrison, 60, was born in Lansing.

The oldest of five children, she was raised in Pickford, where she still lives with her husband Neil, who is principal of Pickford High School and Pickford Middle School.

The couple has two children, Neil Jr. and Krystal.

The LSSU 2010 graduating class student respondent is Simon Purdy, who is graduating with a bachelor's degree in sociology and a minor in geology.

He is the top sociology graduate and an honor student.

Purdy came to LSSU as a transfer student in 2007 from Lansing Community College.

He has been president of the LSSU Student Organization for Diversity for the past two years.

In his position, he promoted diversity, awareness, tolerance and peace through such events as an anti-hate campaign and a Day of Silence on campus.

He also helped bring speaker Paul Rusesabagina to campus last fall.

Rusesabagina is the author of An Ordinary Man, a book that was dramatized in the 2004 movie Hotel Rwanda.

Through the Student Organization for Diversity, Purdy has also worked with the local Diane Peppler Resource Center, a domestic violence shelter, the Safe Zone Ally program, and has helped raise awareness of the atrocities taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Purdy is active all over campus.

He has been a member of the Presidents Council, serving two years on its finance committee; has been a drummer with the LSSU Pep Band for three years, playing at every home hockey game during that time; and has worked in the Walker Cisler Center's Quarterdeck for Food Service for the past three years.

Purdy is a recipient of the Kurt and Mary Brammer scholarship, which is awarded to students based on their grade point average, ACT score and class rank.

He has been on the dean's list for four consecutive semesters and is a member of Alpha Kappa Delta, the sociology honor society.

He recently completed a year-long senior project which examined the effects of digital communication technology on social inter-connectivity and presented those findings at a conference of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters.

"I owe a big thanks to my family and friends, especially my girlfriend Karen, for all of their love and support while I've been working on my degree," Purdy said.

Purdy won't be staying still for long after graduation.

He says his goals include "graduate school, travel to far-off lands, and helping to improve social problems such as poverty, hunger and intolerance, in any way that I can."

In the future, he said, he may become a college professor and eventually hold a position in public office.

A Lansing native, Purdy is the son of Jeff and Sally Purdy.

He has a sister, Monica, and two brothers, Gabe and Mike.

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