Penn State Shenango fall commencement is Friday

SHARON, Pa. — Penn State Shenango will have its 2011 fall commencement ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Shenango campus auditorium with a reception immediately following.

Dr. Fred Leeds, chancellor, will confer baccalaureate and associate degrees on 61 graduating students.

This year, Penn State Shenango welcomes as commencement speaker state Rep. Mark Longietti, 7th Legislative District Mercer County. Longietti, a native of Sharpsville, Pa.., was first elected to serve in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2006.

After graduating with honors from Sharpsville Area High School in 1981, Longietti graduated summa cum laude from Westminster College with a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science. He then entered Boston College Law School and graduated cum laude with his law degree in 1988.

Longietti served as a law clerk to Albert E. Acker, President Judge of the Mercer County Common Pleas Court from 1988 to 1989. In 1989, he joined the Sharon law firm of Routman, Moore, Goldstone and Valentino as an associate and made partner in 1999. In 2001, he established his own law practice in Sharon.