Two hundred and seventeen Chadron State College candidates for undergraduate degrees and 58 candidates for graduate degrees were honored in the Chicoine Center Saturday at 10 a.m. The commencement ceremony was streamed online and on the video board in Beebe Stadium. Winter 2022 graduates participated in the ceremony since the December event was canceled due to a severe snowstorm.
Moments of reflection were offered by Jace Demeranville of Gering, Nebraska, who completed a cross-country bike ride for a CSC course with Dr. Kurt Kinbacher, and Jaqueline Buhr, a master’s degree recipient, who is a staff member with Project Strive TRiO. ROTC cadet Chase Mestas of Colorado Springs, Colorado, will be commissioned into the Army during the ceremony.
The Commencement Speaker was Chadron State College alum and Chadron High School History and Civics teacher Michael Sandstrom. Sandstrom, a Chadron native, has earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from CSC. He also has a master’s degree in American History from Pace University.
Sandstrom, who has taught American History, Advanced Placement U.S. History, World History, and Civic for 10 years, is part of a legacy at CSC. His wife, Sheyenne, his mother, JoAnn Sandstrom, and his mother-in-law, Lorie Hunn, are alumnae. Hunn is a member of the CSC Family and Consumer Sciences faculty. His sister, Madison, attends CSC, and his brother, Zach graduated in 2015.
Sandstrom has accumulated a number of honors in his career, beginning with earning the 2015 James Madison Fellow for Colorado when he was a teacher in that state. Through that fellowship, designed to improve the teaching of the Constitution in American schools, Sandstorm earned six graduate hours in constitutional study from Georgetown University.
“I was ecstatic. The fellowship presents valuable opportunities to learn about the constitution and our founding era that many teachers only dream about,” he said.
In 2019, Sandstrom received the Nebraska History Teacher of the Year Award sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
When receiving the award, Sandstrom said he believes civic competence and historical knowledge should have a prominent role in education.
“Students believe that they possess all the required information at their fingertips, but the power unleashed by the study of history does not come from the memorization of dates and random facts,” Sandstrom says. “My goal, every day, is to make history both relevant and challenging in the hope that they are better prepared for the 21st Century.”
Along with the state award, Sandstrom became a finalist for the National History Teacher of the Year Award, and participated in the Gilder Lehrman Teacher Seminar, a week-long program of discussions between teachers and eminent historians, visits to historic sites, and hands-on work with primary sources.
Sandstrom was also named the 2022 Outstanding Teacher for the Third District by the Nebraska State Council for Social Studies.
Teachers have played a pivotal role in Sandstrom’s life.
“History and social studies have interested me from middle school through high school and into my collegiate years. I believe the strength of my instructors at every level drove my interest, along with my own inquisitive nature,” he said.
The following are area graduates who participated in the ceremony:
Madison Stark of Alliance Bachelor of Arts
Hannah Weare of Alliance Bachelor of Science in Education
Serenity Sterkel of Alliance Bachelor of Arts Cum Laude
Emily Hansen, of Hemingford, Masters