Siyuranga Obasa Koswatta, center, shakes hands with School of Engineering Dean Tarek Sobh as he receives an award at the Honors Convocation the day before graduation. Professor Stephen Grodzinsky, head of the Computer Science and Engineering Department, looks on.

Sharma, who had a minor in mathematics, said his studies and experiences at UB were some of the keys to his success. "The courses helped me a lot technically," he said, noting that his new job requires technical knowledge as well as leadership skills. His role as a resident advisor in UB dormitories helped, Sharma said, "with people skills and how to deal with day-to-day problems." Moreover, with UB's abundance of international cultures, Sharma felt well prepared to "deal with different kinds of people at work and have a more globally diverse perspective on different issues."

New graduate Irina Ibragimova, who was hired by PriceWaterhouse-Coopers after interning there for a year, found a similar experience at UB. Ibragimova said her four years at UB were key in her getting a position at the prestigious accounting firm, where her tasks include preparing tax returns for IBM Corporation and corresponding with the Internal Revenue Service. Ibragimova felt strongly that her communication skills and motivation to reach for the best were developed through her experience in the classroom and in volunteer programs. Exposed to people from vastly different cultures and backgrounds, Ibragimova found a whole world opening up to her, including a new drive to be successful. "The [UB] environment, since everyone had an internship and cooperatives, was good. You felt you had to apply for a good internship," she reflected. In addition, she praised the efforts of Tracy Rigia, who heads the office of internship and cooperative placements.

Coming from Uzbekistan, Ibragimova found her humanities courses helped her to understand the United States while the international business courses prepared her to understand the general policies on world trade and international politics. As a Finance major who minored in International Business, she said the finance courses were important in helping her to understand the stock market.

Chatura Liyanage, a Computer Engineering major, said that although "the work that I'm doing has little to do directly with the work that I learned in my courses, I think the classes helped me to think analytically." Currently working as a software systems engineer at Hyperion Solutions, Liyanage said his years as an intern in various companies and his coursework in the School of Engineering paid off. With a generous salary and the time to develop his own business (named CeyBay, due to go public in the near future), Liyanage acknowledged that the engineering classes were key to developing his ability to work competently. A Sri Lankan native, Liyanage plans to work closely with fellow Sri Lankan UB alumni on CeyBay.

Like many in their fields, Sharma and Liyanage have chosen to develop their technical knowledge in the workplace. Siyuranga Obasa Koswatta, who received his bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, has opted to continue studying engineering on the graduate level. Koswatta came to UB three years ago from Sri Lanka. He was accepted for graduate study at Stanford and other universities, but selected Purdue University, in Indiana, which is ranked ninth in the nation for its School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He'll study there for master's and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering.

Koswatta won one of Purdue's highly competitive and prestigious Electrical and Computer Engineering fellowships. It provides a full scholarship as well as the opportunity to begin doctoral studies directly upon entering graduate school.

As the winner of the 2002 School of Engineering Dean's Award, Koswatta appreciates the "great faculty" in the School of Engineering as well as his internship at EMC Corporation, which helped with his technical development. The faculty acknowledged that Koswatta, graduating with a 3.9 GPA, was "the kind of student that comes around only once every three to five years."

Graduate study beckons another outstanding student, Harumi Kawamura, who is going on to Harvard Divinity School with a full scholarship. Kawamura, who grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, wants to get a master's in theological studies and then teach and work on dialogue among religious groups.

Kawamura, who earned a 3.93 GPA in her four years at the university, said two teachers inspired her: Stephen Healey and Dr. Richard L. Rubenstein. Both teach courses in World Religions, a major offered in the International College run by Dean Thomas Ward, who was one of Kawamura's advisors.

Healey was her first teacher in a religion course, and she liked the course so much that she switched majors from Journalism to World Religions. Rubenstein was a strong influence. "I took a course, 'Religion, Violence and Peace,' with Dr. Rubenstein," she said. "After that, I knew that’s what I had to study. The World Trade Center tragedy affirmed that interreligious cooperation is absolutely necessary."

Kawamura said UB had a tremendous influence on her, citing its "academic excellence" and the sense of community. "My dorm was my neighborhood. I had the opportunity to work with people, to get involved organizing programs, to develop my writing skills in class and in writing for the Scribe."

Ritesh Tanna, a graduate from Hyderabad, India, links his current success to attendance at the University of Bridgeport. Double-majoring in Finance and Computer Applications and Information Systems, Tanna works at Black Diamond Capital Management, an investment management firm in Greenwich. Tanna said his studies at UB allowed him to develop the skills most necessary for his work.

When temperatures turned warm, everyone was outdoors to enjoy the sun and spring colors.

Snejana Gradeva, also majoring in Finance as well as International Business, echoed those feelings about the business courses she took. "Academically, this school can definitely compete with students from the best schools," she said. Gradeva, who grew up in Bulgaria, said professors such as Gew Rae Kim taught at the undergraduate level the courses that he taught on the Master's in Business Administration level at Yale. Gradeva won the Dean's Award in the School of Business for her 3.95 GPA. She will continue on to Pace University for an MBA, concentrating on finance and computer applications.

Gradeva found her four years at UB satisfying. She said, "If I could stay for four more years, I would."