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| Students line up prior to the ceremony for the march around the quad. |
HOUGHTON, NY - May 12, 2018 – Twenty-six Allegany County
students graduated from Houghton College on Saturday, May 12, 2018.
They and fellow graduates – led by internationally renowned
bagpiper Andrew Hutton – marched around the campus quad in a symbolic journey,
paralleling one that many of them first took four years ago when they arrived
on campus, thus making this community their own.
The Class of 2018 represents 20 countries, from as far as
Afghanistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Jamaica, Nepal, and Venezuela. The 261 graduates
include 12 online graduates, 20 Associate of Arts recipients, 233 bachelor’s
degree students, and eight master’s degree graduates. Of the 261, 27 students
are graduates of the Houghton College Buffalo program.
Valedictorian Emma Carpenter (Savannah, NY) and salutatorian
Rachel Zimmerman (Waxhaw, NC) led the academic honors, which also includes 26
summa cum laude, 38 magna cum laude, and 35 cum laude recipients.
This year’s speaker, Richard J. Mouw, is a 1961 graduate of
Houghton College. He has had a distinguished career in the world of higher
education, first as a philosophy professor at Calvin College, then as a
professor, provost and president of Fuller Theological Seminary As president
emeritus, Mouw now also serves as professor of faith and public life at Fuller.
In addition to editing the Reformed Journal, he has written more than 20 books,
including Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World and
Adventures in Evangelical Civility: A Lifelong Quest for Common Ground.
Mouw encouraged the graduates to remain “surprised by joy”
and engage the life of the mind. “I challenge you – I urge you – to go forth
from this campus as agents of God’s surprises,” he remarked. “We need a
generation of Christians who have strong conviction but who have learned to be
gentle and reverent as you serve the Lord on what we know to be holy ground.”
Mouw was presented with the Houghton Medal, an honor
bestowed on individuals who embody the commitments and aspirations at the heart
of a Houghton education. President Mullen’s citation praised Mouw for “serving
as the host and convener of dialogues that others are too afraid to initiate,
and all toward the end of replacing division and suspicion with greater mutual
understanding, surprising discoveries of shared purposes, and a potential for
partnership in the promotion of the common good.”
Senior Emma Steele announced the gift from the class of
2018, a circle of bench swings installed near the iconic Houghton Rock. The
gift, she noted, is intended to serve as a “reminder of the oneness of this
community, and will be a place to be together and grow in relationships.”
The president’s commendation of Mouw for “modeling a life of
fearless and generous hospitality in the name of Jesus Christ in a world that
needs grace-filled spaces more than ever” communicated also her aspirations for
the members of the class of 2018 as they continue their journeys.
The students from
Allegany County are:
M. Jerome Bell, Houghton
Garrett Bock,
Wellsville
Nathalia Cabrera
Febres, Houghton
Elianna Chroniger, Alfred
Station
Christopher Cilento, Houghton
Holden Cole, Bolivar
Rachael Cronk, Houghton
Jordan Crouch, Fillmore
Emilia Gildemeister, Rushford
Kirsten Hedstrom-Brady,
Wellsville
Carl Holmes, Cuba
Ella Hotchkiss, Fillmore
Jena Kasprowicz, Friendship
Grace Lee, Houghton
Jiayao Lu, Houghton
Tamadea Maleachi, Houghton
Jordan Mullen, Fillmore
Jenna Munro, Wellsville
Thao Nguyen, Houghton
Jordan Pearson, Wellsville
Baylee Perry, Angelica
Ian Riley, Angelica
Emma Steele, Angelica
Katelyn Sylor, Angelica
Bjorn Webb, Houghton
Samuel Yuly, Houghton
