It's May — time for graduates to take center stage

Over the next few weekends, thousands of college and university students will don traditional gowns, cross their respective stages and turn the symbolic tassels during graduation ceremonies across Eastern Iowa.

This year's crop of commencements includes several records, firsts, lasts and big names.

Dennis Muilenburg, chairman, president and CEO of The Boeing Company, will speak during Iowa State University's undergraduate commencement Saturday.

The University of Iowa meanwhile will award two honorary degrees — one to billionaire businessman and philanthropist Ted Waitt, who co-founded Gateway Inc., and another to wellness innovator Martin-Jose Sepulveda, who spent decades at IBM developing employee health and wellness programs.

Muilenburg's address will go out to another record-breaking class at Iowa State, which for the second year is holding its undergraduate ceremony in Jack Trice Stadium to accommodate the growing body of graduates, family members and friends.

Iowa State expects 5,093 graduation candidates, including 4,322 bachelor's, 497 master's and 133 doctoral candidates plus 141 veterinary medicine graduates.

The UI's anticipated graduate total is 4,839 — which is above last May's 4,738 but not a record. In May 2015, for example, the registrar's office reported 4,916 degrees.

The University of Northern Iowa expects to graduate about 1,700 students, including 400 graduate students and 1,300 undergraduates. The university last year reported 1,625 graduate, up from 1,464 in 2015.

And while those statistics paint the big picture of growing class sizes that are, perhaps, moving through at a faster clip, they miss the trials and triumphs that permeate the stories of every robed degree-recipient who'll march across the stage this month.

Here are two of their stories.

MOVING FROM SYRIA TO IOWA: 'THE RIGHT DECISION'

An Arabic saying kept ringing through Mousa Abuissa's mind.

'One bird in hand is better than 10 on the tree,' he said. 'Basically, if you have something certain in your hand, you shouldn't throw it and hope for 10.'

In 2009, Abuissa felt he had something certain. The then-19-year-old Syrian was well on his way to finishing a music and economics degree at Damascus University. The conflict that would envelop his homeland had not year begun. His parents and sister were rooted nearby.

But, on an October 2009 visit to his aunt and uncle in Iowa City, something clicked for Abuissa. His aunt showed him around the UI campus. She took him to the College of Pharmacy — he had always wanted to pursue pharmacy, like so many others in his family.

Although he had a return ticket booked for December, Abuissa never used it. He made the difficult decision to transfer his college credits, leave behind his family, home and belongings, and apply to the UI.

'I was really torn,' Abuissa told The Gazette. 'I wasn't sure if I was making the right decision. I could be throwing my degree away back home.'

Of course, one year later, war broke out in Syria, and Abuissa was glad he took the chance on Iowa City.

Among the university's selling points was its dual strengths in the arts and sciences, given that Abuissa was studying the cello back in Syria but had visions of a pharmacy career.

He completed his undergraduate degree in music at the UI in 2013 — borrowing a cello for a while. He then immediately enrolled in the UI College of Pharmacy graduate program, taking English classes along the way and earning his citizenship.

Two years after the Syrian conflict started, his parents sent over his younger sister, who also enrolled at the UI. She, too, became a U.S. citizen.

'Thankfully,' Abuissa noted. 'Got that done before crazy things started happening.'

He didn't return to Syria for a visit until 2015. And yet, despite the oceans and continents that divide them, Abuissa has woven Syria and its turmoil into his Iowa City life.

'My morning routine — wake up, grab the laptop, go to the news things while the coffee is making, read all the depressing stories, and then get some coffee and move on with my day,' he said. 'But I do have at least 20 to 30 minutes in the morning, just for that.'

He continues to check throughout the day.

'In a way, I'm addicted,' he said. 'But I have to know.'

His parents are relatively safe in the capital city, he said. And, despite some of the international travel challenges at present, his dad is in Iowa City for a visit, just in time to see his two Hawkeye transplants graduate.

Abuissa, 27, has earned a doctor of pharmacy degree. Natali Abuissa, 25, has earned an undergraduate degree in economics. And although Mousa Abuissa said he'd like to try out a U.S. metropolis for a while — he's applied to jobs in San Francisco and Minneapolis — he's not necessarily leaving Iowa City for good.

'I want to go to bigger cities, get some experience and then potentially come back,' he said.

COE MOTHER, COE KIDS: 'IN THEIR BLOOD'

Eight weeks after giving birth to boy-girl twins, Jean Johnson was attending a homecoming dinner in downtown Cedar Rapids in her official capacity as director of alumni programs for Coe College. The event was in a hotel, and Johnson's niece was watching her infants in a room upstairs.

But everyone at the party began asking about the twins, requesting she bring them down.

'They got to go to their first reunion dinner, just to do a lap of introduction, when they were just babies,' Johnson said. 'So it's in their blood.'

She means, perhaps, the twins — Mackenzie and Andrew Johnson — were destined to become Kohawks. And this Sunday they'll both receive their Coe degrees from the person who introduced them to campus.

'I get to hand them their diplomas,' Johnson said. 'They'll say, 'Presenting Andrew's diploma is his mother, Director of Alumni Programs Jean Johnson. And then I get to hand it, shake his hand, hug him, get a picture and then the president will probably shake his hand, and off he goes.'

One other Johnson slips in alphabetically before Mackenzie.

'I probably should just grab her and have triplets,' Johnson said.

The moment will be a big one for Mackenzie and Andrew, who Johnson said now have a leg up on her, given that she's worked for Coe for decades but didn't earn a degree from the private college.

'I'm very proud they're Coe graduates,' she said. 'It's a meaningful name to have on your resume.'

But this season also brings significance for Johnson, who'll be retiring as one of the longest-serving alumni program directors in Coe history.

'I think I've done my 28 years,' Johnson, 61, said about why she's stepping away now. 'I keep saying my brain is full of names, places, years, and connections.'

Johnson shepherded Coe's alumni program over the years through key milestones and societal shifts — including technological advancements that have made social media paramount in networking. But one significant promise she made good on was providing a consistent face for graduated Kohawks.

'They were looking for longevity,' she said, noting relationship-building opportunities increase the longer an alumni director sticks around. 'It's the more people you know.'

The alumni pool has grown during Johnson's time. from about 13,000 to more than 15,000. Its student body has swelled from about 1,000 to more than 1,400. Johnson's official leave date is Sept. 1, but with so much institutional knowledge and deep connections, her departure will be a process.

'Our biggest time is homecoming,' she said 'So I'm going to help them get started with it.'

[naviga:h3 style="padding-left: 30px;"]UPCOMING GRADUATION CEREMONIES

This weekend

— University of Iowa: https://registrar.uiowa.edu/may-2017-ceremonies-and-events

— Cornell College: cornellcollege.edu/commencement/schedule-of-events/index.shtml

— Kirkwood Community College: kirkwood.edu/commencementlive

May 20 and 21

— Mount Mercy University: mtmercy.edu/commencement

l Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com