March 26, 2025
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun will present the keynote address to graduates from Trine University’s
Angola campus, Brooks College of Health Professions and TrineOnline during the morning
ceremony on Saturday, May 3.
The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. in the Keith E. Busse/Steel Dynamics Inc. Athletics and Recreation Center (ARC).
“We have appreciated Gov. Braun’s friendship and support during his time as senator and his excellent leadership for our state as governor,” said Earl D. Brooks II, Ph.D., Trine University president. “We’re proud to welcome him to campus once again and look forward to the wisdom he will share with our graduating students.”
The university will present the governor with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree during the ceremony.
From Main Street to the Governor’s Mansion
The 52nd governor of Indiana, Gov. Braun spent his career as a main street entrepreneur, building a business and creating thousands of jobs for the state before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018.
After graduating from Jasper High School in 1972 as class president and a letterman in football, basketball and track, he attended Wabash College. At Wabash, he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in economics and as student body president.
After college, the governor married his high school sweetheart Maureen and the two moved to Boston, where he attended Harvard Business School and earned his MBA. When he completed business school, he returned to Jasper to raise a family and build a career.
In 1981, he took over a struggling farm equipment manufacturer called Meyer Body. In the early 2000s, Meyer began to grow into a regional company and over the next 15 years grew into a national company that currently employs thousands of Americans with locations in 38 states.
Gov. Braun began his public service as a member of the local school board for ten years and then as a state representative from 2014-2017.
As senator, he led over 40 bills into law and was named the most effective first-term Republican senator.
Gov. Braun is an avid outdoorsman and enthusiastic morel mushroom hunter. He and Maureen have been married for 48 years and have four adult children and seven grandchildren.
Afternoon Commencement
Kiruba "Rupa" Shanmugam, a 1995 Trine University electrical engineering graduate who now serves as president, chief executive officer and majority owner of SoPark Corporation in Buffalo, New York, will present the keynote address at the afternoon Commencement ceremony.
That ceremony, beginning at 4 p.m. in the ARC, recognizes students who have earned degrees at the university’s Detroit, Phoenix and Reston, Virginia, education centers.
Isabel Soto, instructor, and her Spanish students have created an ofrenda (decorated altar) honoring Ana Boman, who taught Spanish in Trine University’s Department of Humanities and Communication for 16 years before she passed away last year.
Trine University has launched Dual Advantage, a new program that gives undergraduate students multiple pathways to earn both a bachelor’s degree and an advanced degree in less time than completing both degrees separately.
Trine University student organizations and the McKetta Department of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering recently offered activities for girls interested in science and engineering at the 2026 STEM Expo hosted by the Girl Scouts of Northern Indiana-Michiana (GSNI-M).