Plattsburgh State Winter Commencement Dec. 13

Nazia Habib, from Dhaka, Bangladesh, will be the student speaker during the ceremony. Habib will graduate with a bachelor's degree in business economics and a minor in accounting and business analysis.

"I was the gold medallist on the higher secondary school certification exam in my country. It's like the SATs. As a reward, my dad said he would send me abroad to school," said Habib. "We met a SUNY agent during an education fair, and he told us about Plattsburgh State."

Habib said her father was skeptical especially when he heard, "New York," and pictured the big city. She and her father ended up buying two plane tickets and came to Plattsburgh to visit the campus.

"After the trip, we were both very satisfied. I came to Plattsburgh State that spring."

Habib is a member of a number of honor societies including Phi Eta Sigma, Beta Eta Gamma, Phi Eta Sigma, Omicron Delta Kappa, Economics Honor Society and the American Scholar Honor Society.

She has been the president of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) and president of the Economics Club. She has been active in the Student Association, Academic Advising Board, Project HELP and the Learning Center. She is a peer advisor for EOP, which she described as a great experience.

Habib is finishing up a full semester with 25 course credit hours and six research credits. She has recently accepted an offer from IBM and will be a managerial accounting analyst in the worldwide accounting division headquarters in New York City.

She will also be traveling to Austin, Texas in February to present a paper, "Food Insecurity in Nicaragua," at the 24th Annual ILASSA Conference on Latin America. The paper is the result of a research project she completed for the Honors Program at Plattsburgh State.

"I will have a warm and fuzzy feeling with an ice cold sparkle during graduation," said Habib. "My heart will raise and drop as I change my tassel from one side to another. Plattsburgh State has become my second motherland, and I have a strong connection to Plattsburgh. I'm excited that I'm graduating, but I'm feeling a little emptiness that I'm leaving. I think I'm an example of how my fellow students feel -- we all have these mixed feelings. I want to tell my peers, 'Don't forget where you come from,'" said Habib.

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