MEQUON, Wis. – Concordia University Wisconsin will award degrees to approximately 223 undergraduate students, 82  masters candidates and 2 doctoral candidates at 1:30 p.m., on Saturday, December 17, in the R. John Buuck Field House.

Miriam Hoelter will be the university’s 125th anniversary commencement speaker. Hoelter, and her five brothers and sisters, were raised on the campus of Concordia College, Milwaukee, where her father, Dr. Walter W. Stuenkel, served as president. In 1965, she was a member of the first class of women students admitted to Concordia, finishing the junior college program in 1967. She was also Concordia’s first homecoming queen, something about which she has always been embarrassed, since it was her suggestion as secretary of the Student Senate to begin such a tradition.

After completing her college education at Concordia Teachers College, River Forest, IL, she taught in Lutheran schools in Michigan until her marriage to Pastor Mark E. Hoelter, whom she met while a student at Concordia, Milwaukee. She has worked closely with her husband at congregations in Hepler and Brazilton, KS, campus ministry at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS, and Trinity Lutheran Church in Portland, OR, where they have lived now for the last 15 years. The Hoelter’s have four sons, two daughters-in-law, and one grandson.

Hoelter also has a Master’s in Education in the area of Elementary Counseling from the University of Kansas. She is currently in her 18th year as an elementary counselor. She is current president of the Oregon School Counselor Association and was named Elementary School Counselor of the Year for Oregon in 2003.