Category: Alumni
1 June, 2008
1:00 PM
- 3:00 PM
Contact Information
Hoyt Smith
Phone: (858) 642-8111
Email: alumni@nu.edu
Details
Alan C. Page, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice of Minnesota and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, will serve as the keynote speaker for National University's 2008 commencement ceremony in Sacramento on Sunday, June 1.
The ceremony begins at 1 p.m. at the downtown Sacramento Convention Center and will include graduates from National University's campuses from throughout northern California, including Bakersfield, Fresno, Stockton, San Jose, Sacramento and Redding.
Justice Page is an ardent defender of equal education for all children. He has established a foundation to motivate and assist young men and women of color to pursue education beyond high school, and also has co-sponsored a national essay-writing contest to promote literacy.
Mr. Page also is widely known as a member of the famed "Purple People Eaters," the Minnesota Vikings' fierce defensive unit of the 1970s. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame with the Class of 1988.
Mr. Page's law career actually began during his NFL-playing days when he had the foresight to attend law school at the University of Minnesota so that he could be prepared for life after football. When he retired from football in 1981, he went to work for a law firm before being appointed a special assistant attorney general in Minnesota. In 1987, he became an assistant attorney general, and in 1993, he became an associate justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court.
The recipient of numerous athletic and humanitarian awards, Mr. Page likes to think of football as a past chapter in his life. "If I could choose a way to be remembered, it wouldn't be my association with football," says Mr. Page. "Football is the past – a good past, but I'd want to be remembered with children – my children and other children."
Beginning with ten Page Grants awarded in its first year, the Page Education Foundation now awards nearly 600 Page Grants annually. In addition to helping provide college tuition, the foundation requires each of its Page Scholars to spend a minimum of 50 hours per school year tutoring and mentoring younger students in the area of education. In total, the foundation has awarded more than $5 million in scholarships to more than 2,600 students.
Mr. Page earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Notre Dame, and a Jurist Doctorate from the University of Minnesota. He has also received eight honorary degrees.
For more information about Justice Page or National University's northern California commencement ceremony, please visit www.nu.edu/Academics/Graduation/Commencement.html.
Sponsored By
National University
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