BELLINGHAM - Holocaust survivor Noemi Ban will receive an honorary doctorate from Western Washington University at the school's winter commencement Saturday, March 23.

Ban, who has shared with thousands of people her story of surviving the Auschwitz concentration camp, also will give the commencement address.

Ban will receive an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters at the commencement, which begins at 10 a.m. in Carver Gym.

Ban is the cofounder of the Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Ethnocide Education, housed in WWU's Woodring College of Education. She has received a variety of awards for her work, as well as an honorary doctorate from Gonzaga University.

About 530 undergraduates and 32 master's candidates will receive their degrees on Saturday, including student commencement speaker Wesley Ball.

Tickets are required to attend the ceremony, but those without tickets can watch the live televised ceremony in room 150 of the Science, Mathematics and Technology Education building on campus. The ceremony also will be streamed live at ustream.tv/channel/wwu-live-events1.

Reach Zoe Fraley at 360-756-2803 or zoe.fraley@bellinghamherald.com. Read her school days blog at blogs.bellinghamherald.com/schools or follow her on Twitter at @bhamschools.