A record number of University of Washington Tacoma students will gather next week at the Tacoma Dome to participate in the school’s 23rd annual commencement ceremony. According to UW Tacoma officials, 1,386 students will be awarded 1,202 degrees at the baccalaureate level, and 184 degrees will be awarded at the master level.

Students this year elected to highlight a student peer as commencement speaker rather than bringing in a dignitary from outside. Dee Ann Sonntag, the student speaker, will be receiving a bachelor’s degree in politics, philosophy and economics, magna cum laude, with a minor in human rights. Like 70 per cent of her peers, she transferred to UW Tacoma after receiving her associate’s degree from a local community college. In the autumn, she plans to attend law school at the University of Idaho, and hopes to return to Tacoma after receiving her Juris Doctor.

The Chancellor’s Medal, recognizing the graduating senior who has the most distinguished academic record, will be presented this year to Kylie Lanthorn, a magna cum laude graduate who majored in arts, media and culture, and minored in human rights. She is the first recipient of this honor to have entered UW Tacoma as a freshman, a category of student that appeared on campus in 2006 and that has been growing every year since. Kylie has interned at the Museum of Glass and intends to get a Ph.D. in communication.

The 2013 University of Washington Tacoma Commencement ceremony will be held on Fri., June 14 between 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at the Tacoma Dome, located at 2727 East D St. More information is available online at tacoma.uw.edu/commencement.