GM
Gerald Maust
  • Management of Sports Industries
  • Class of 2013
  • Wallingford, CT

Gerald Maust graduates from Ohio Wesleyan University

2010 Jun 10

Gerald Maust of Wallingford, CT, graduated May, 9, 2010, from Ohio Wesleyan University. Maust earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Maust also attended Mark T. Sheehan High School and is the son of Ellen Maust and Gerald Maust.

Ohio Wesleyan's Class of 2010 included 61 cum laude graduates, 38 magna cum laude graduates, 25 summa cum laude graduates, and one graduate with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., served as keynote speaker. During his address, McCain urged the new Ohio Wesleyan graduates to appreciate freedom for "the goodness it makes possible."

"Not all of us will bear arms for our country," said McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate and a 28-year U.S. representative and senator. "Few of us will ever rush into burning buildings to save the lives of strangers. Not many will devote their lives entirely to the well-being of others. But we do have an obligation to be worthy of our ideals, and the sacrifices made on their behalf. We have to love our freedom not just for the autonomy it guarantees us, but for the goodness it makes possible. We must love freedom for the right reasons, and on occasion our love will need courage to survive.

"We are all afraid of something, whether it's failure, or dispossession, or mortality, and the sacrifice of time that becomes so precious to us," concluded McCain, a former prisoner of war. "But we should not let the sensation of fear convince us we are too weak to have courage. Fear is the opportunity for courage, not proof of cowardice. No one is born a coward. We were meant to love. And we were meant to have the courage for it."

During his remarks, the senator also congratulated Ohio Wesleyan on being one of three colleges nationwide honored in February with a Presidential Award for Excellence in General Community Service. The award, part of the 2009 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, recognized the overall breadth and quality of Ohio Wesleyan's community service, service learning, and civic engagement programs. During the 2008-2009 academic year, the period covered by the award, nearly 1,800 Ohio Wesleyan students volunteered more than 45,000 hours to help others.

Before concluding the 2010 commencement ceremony, OWU President Rock Jones, Ph.D., also encouraged the graduates to share their knowledge and compassion with the world.

"If, here at Ohio Wesleyan, you have found freedom, take it with you into the world," Jones said, sharing traditional OWU graduation wishes. "If, here at Ohio Wesleyan, you have found peace, go and share it with others. If, here at Ohio Wesleyan, you have found some portion of truth, go and seek it all the more. If, here at Ohio Wesleyan, you have dreamed dreams, help one another, and those dreams may come true. If, here at Ohio Wesleyan, you have known love, give some back to a bruised and hurting world."

To read Sen. McCain's complete remarks or learn more about Ohio Wesleyan's 2010 commencement ceremony, visit http://commencement.owu.edu/2010Congratulations.html.

Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation's premier small, private universities, with more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 22 Division III varsity sports. Located in Delaware, Ohio, just minutes north of Ohio's capital and largest city, Columbus, the university combines a globally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that translate classroom theory into real-world practice. OWU's close-knit community of 1,850 students represents 45 states and 57 countries. Ohio Wesleyan earned a 2009 Presidential Award for Excellence in General Community Service, is featured in the book "Colleges That Change Lives," and is included on the "best colleges" lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.

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