St. Edward's University will confer 616 degrees during the university’s 121st commencement ceremony at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 5 at the FrankErwinCenter. Alex Boraine, a native South African and founder of the International Center for Transitional Justice, will deliver the keynote address and will be recognized with an honorary degree.

Prior to starting the center, which assists countries pursuing accountability for past mass atrocities or human rights abuses, Boraine, an ordained Methodist minister, served as president of the Methodist Church of South Africa from 1970 to 1972. From 1974 to 1986, he served in the South African Parliament, and from 1986 to 1995, he led two South African nonprofits concerned with ending apartheid and addressing the ills it left behind.

In 1995, South African President Nelson Mandela appointed him as deputy chair of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a post he held until 1998, serving under chairman Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Boraine then served as professor of Law at New York University and as director of the New York University Law School’s Justice in Transition program from 1998 through early 2001. In 2004, his career came full circle when he returned to South Africa and took over as the chairperson of the International Center for Transitional Justice that he founded.

He holds multiple degrees from universities around the world, including Rhodes University in South Africa, Oxford University in England and Drew University in the United States, as well as six honorary doctorates. His most recent book, A Country Unmasked, was published by Oxford University Press in November 2000. Boraine was awarded the President’s medal for Human Rights in Italy in October 2000 and currently serves as a global visiting professor of Law at the New York University School of Law’s Hauser Global Law School Program.

St. Edward’s University officials will confer approximately 616 degrees this spring. Degree distribution is as follows:

Angelo Steinhardt-Keely will deliver the valedictory address. Steinhardt-Keely will graduate summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and a minor in Music, International Relations and Philosophy.

He founded and served as president of the Religious Studies Club at St. Edward’s, and has volunteered in orphanages in India and Honduras. He also found time to complete a four-week internship in Paris, France, researching the past 30 years of political conflict between Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. The fluency he developed in French and Spanish, as well as conversational Arabic, came in handy for this task.

For the past two years, Angelo has worked to create ties between St. Edward’s University and the Abhayadhama Orphanage in India as part of his Brown Scholarship community service award project. This summer, he will lead a group of students with Campus Ministry to volunteer at the orphanage.