{"id":5462,"date":"2011-12-05T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2011-12-05T19:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=5462"},"modified":"2018-01-12T08:32:17","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T15:32:17","slug":"alum-to-deliver-globalization-message-at-december-commencement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=5462","title":{"rendered":"Alum to deliver globalization message at December Commencement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Fryt only traveled eleven miles from his Manitou Springs home to earn his first college degree.<\/p>\n

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Mike Fryt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Fryt, the corporate vice president of tax for FedEx and the December 2011 Commencement speaker, found that his CU degrees would take him around the world.<\/p>\n

Fryt, 56, will share his experiences at FedEx and Exxon Corp. with an estimated 400 students who will participate in December 2011 UCCS Commencement ceremonies scheduled for 2 p.m. Dec. 16 at the Colorado Springs World Arena. He will join UCCS Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak, CU President Bruce Benson and members of the CU Board of Regents in congratulating graduates and in the formal conferring of degrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the challenges today are more complex than ever, at least in part because they are global, not just regional, in nature,\u201d Fryt said. \u201cIt is no longer just us here in the United States and we cannot pretend it is. Indeed, we do so at our own peril.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the new graduates, Fryt will trace his personal journey from Manitou Springs to UCCS where he earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in business, graduating in May 1977 as one of the university\u2019s top students. His success as an accounting major took him to CU Boulder where he earned his law degree in 1980, specializing in tax law. From CU, Fryt took corporate tax lawyer positions with Exxon and TRW, living in places like Sydney, Australia, and Brussels, Belgium, in addition to Houston and Cleveland.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy travels affected my view of the world and helped me develop a global perspective,\u201d Fryt said. \u201cWe must understand we are a global community. For the most part, that\u2019s a good thing that can and should be leveraged to make the world a better place to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now based at FedEx headquarters in Memphis, Tenn., Fryt continues to travel extensively for business and pleasure, having visited many countries in virtually every part of the world. But despite his frequently- stamped passport, he maintains an appreciation for UCCS and for Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are still a big part of my foundation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fryt helped lead \u00a0a fundraising drive to honor a UCCS professor and he is proud of having scaled all 54 Colorado \u201cFourteeners\u201d with his three brothers.<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessor Kirk Wilcox, my accounting professor, was simply an outstanding educator and professional,\u201d Fryt said. \u201cHe was tough, but positively brilliant. He instilled in me a desire to learn. You don\u2019t forget that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mike Fryt only traveled eleven miles from his Manitou Springs home to earn his first college degree. But Fryt, the corporate vice president of tax for FedEx and the December 2011 Commencement speaker, found that (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-5462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","tag-commencement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/FRYT_Michael_2171171-200x300.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-1q6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5462"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29241,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5462\/revisions\/29241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}