Montana Tech Announces Fall Commencement Activities and Speaker

Montana Technological University will celebrate its fall commencement ceremony on Saturday, December 11, 2021, at 11:00 am in the HPER. The full ceremony is for fall 2021 graduates only. The university is expected to award 158 degrees and certificates to 155 students.

The weekend will include the Order of the Engineer Ring Ceremony and the Nursing Pinning Ceremony. The Order of the Engineering Ring Ceremony will be held on Friday, December 10 at 5:00 pm in the Library Auditorium. The ceremony will see several Montana Tech engineering students, faculty and staff participate. The Nursing Pinning Ceremony will be held on Saturday at 9:30 am in the Library Auditorium. The Montana Tech Nursing Pinning Ceremony is a symbolic welcoming of newly graduated nurses into the nursing profession. Thirteen Bachelor of Science (BSN) students will be presented with nursing pins by Montana Tech Nursing Department faculty, and the ceremony will include a student speaker and a slideshow.

Montana Tech alumnus Jon Wick will be the keynote speaker at the university’s fall 2021 commencement. In 2012, Jon started 5518 Designs, a branding, graphics, and print design company proudly based in Butte. Through client work and side projects, he developed a unique 5518 style of graphics that emerged out of his love of traveling, adventure, and the inspiration gained from time spent exploring.

Jon was diagnosed with Rectal Cancer at 33 years old. That experience reinforced his creative direction to both escape society's complexity and encourage others to find their passions and see value in life’s simplest forms.

In 2016, 5518 Designs expanded into a retail location at 27 N. Main Street in the heart of uptown Butte, offering their brand of outdoor and recreation-inspired apparel, custom merchandising packages, and creative business solutions. The business has taken off in a short time and is a popular destination for both locals and visitors. The summer of 2021 saw the expansion of 5518 to a second location in Anaconda.

In addition to running the business, Jon and Cassie Wick are very active in the community and have hosted and sponsored many causes and fundraisers for those in need. Jon has spent time as the Executive Director of Mariah’s Challenge, a presenter at the Innovate Montana Symposium, and a board member of the St. James Foundation and the Butte Parks and Trails Foundation.

Wick has been awarded the 2013 Butte-Silver Bow Moving Mountains Award and was named a Distinguished Alumni of Montana Tech in 2015. Jon was honored with the 2016 BLDC Young Professional of the Year award and 2018 Montana Standard 20 under 40 recipient. This past August, Jon and Cassie were awarded the Montana Entrepreneurs of the year from the Montana Ambassador program.

For more information about commencement, please visit www.mtech.edu/enrollment/graduation/commencement.