An Open Letter
Celebrate wit
Dear Graduates, It’s 10 a.m. on Saturday morning, April 25, 2020, and the Campbell Center sits eerily quiet and empty. No lights, no sounds, no conversations. The doors are locked and nobody’s home. That same deafening silence has been and will be repeated countless times throughout our world, but that doesn’t make it any less painful on this beautiful spring morning. Even if our traditional commencement celebration was occurring today, it is important for you to recognize that graduation, especially at YC, is more than a day. Graduation is the culmination of many things. It is the result of years of hard work, dedicated study, classes, labs, rehearsals, practices, Chapel, conversations, meals, and experiences that make up what we often call the York College Experience. Regardless of the conditions that influenced the nature of your last six weeks at this institution, the context of your time at YC is more than sheltering at home or social distancing. Instead, YC is the sum of your time here, the totality of those small experiences that defined our shared community, the entirety of those daily happenings that you have likely missed since spring break ended with our move to online. Although your final weeks ended somewhat awkwardly, please know that you are still part of the YC family - once a Panther, always a Panther! Awkward moments happen in families and spring 2020 is one that each of us will remember for many years, in part because of the challenges and successes in continuing to persist and overcome in the face of difficulties. Congratulations on your achievement and blessings on your next steps. As you figuratively leave York College, don’t forget that you will always have a place here and we hope to see you at Homecoming this fall when we will celebrate your big day as a family. We miss you, we love you and may God bless you in all you do. Dr. Shane Mountjoy Provost
York College Class of 2020 Baccalaureate Candidates: Sheyi Ajiboye, Aaron Alvarez, Hannah Anderson***, Joshua Anderson, Dylan Belik*, Molly Bich***, Joshua Brown, Nyalat Buom, Rebecca Carpenter**, Malia Davidson***, Abbey Draper, Christian Eggar, Lance Ewell, Garrett Ewing***, Tanirelis Fernandez, Kendall Fike***, Kent Garrett, Selena Gomez, Benjamen Gramm**, Mackenzie Grauberger***, Rodrigo Guimaraes, Austin Hackel***, Nakia Hackel, Joshua Hamilton, Roc Johnson, Michael Karpinski, Lydia Kirchhoff**, Maria Lopez, Danny Mandungu, Madeleine Martinez, Cassandra Martinez, Justine Medina, Cameron Merrill***, Melanie (Wells) Merrill, Katrina Murdock, Olivia Nabb*, Stella Newman**, Carter Price**, Jason Richardson*, Kayli Riesgo, Hannah Rohda***, Maricela Romero, Alex Rooney, Alyssa Ruiz*, Cole Satterfield***, Mataia Scheerer-Hamm*, Logan Stewart, Hailey Stigger, Rose Tafaoialii, Meida Tautalatasi, Igor Torres***, Susan Traver, Marissa Tyler***, Kafani Williams, Kyle Wynn** ***Summa Cum Laude - GPA of 3.85 or higher **Magna Cum Laude - GPA of 3.60 or higher *Cum Laude - GPA of 3.40 or higher
Master Candidates: Jeremiah Ahart (MOGL), Tre' Bradley (MOGL), Breanne Goben (MOGL), Kevin Hand (MOGL), Kirby McClain (MOGL), Kawai Mullen (MCI), Hannah Parker (MOGL), Barbara Shantz (MOGL), Sierra Valerio (MOGL) M.A. Organizational and Global Leadership (MOGL), M.A. Curriculum and Instruction (MCI)
Associate Candidates: Tashay Jackson, Myya Maxwell, Nicole Willcoxon
16 | Heritage | SUMMER 2020
Updates regarding the rescheduled celebration can be found online at www.york.edu/graduation.
