Double Commencement Celebrates Resilience
Principia College hosted a double-feature on May 16, as graduates, faculty, staff, family, and friends celebrated not just one Commencement but two—the Class of 2021 and the Class of 2020.
Last year’s Commencement ceremony was postponed due to pandemic restrictions, but the majority of the 2020 graduates returned to campus to experience the pomp and circumstance in person and make the walk across the Cox Auditorium stage.
The College held separate commencement ceremonies for the two classes and their guests, but both events celebrated the once-in-a-lifetime resilience these graduates expressed over the past two academic years in thriving, not just coping, despite the restrictions and challenges of a global pandemic.
College President John Williams (C'76) remarked that the “resilience of our students” must have helped them to break numerous College athletic records in women’s swimming, men’s tennis, and track and field. The College Mediation Team “swept” the national competition. Principia College students outshined most of the other colleges in the Model United Nations and Model Illinois Government events held this winter. Seniors completed their capstone projects despite restrictive protocols, and the Pilot “published some of the best reporting they have done in years,” President Williams said.
Academic Dean Dr. Meggan Madden (C'93) presented the Phi Alpha Eta Awards to the seniors who have the highest scholastic average and have completed at least 90 semester hours at Principia. For the Class of 2021, the award (which normally goes to just one student) went to two seniors with grade-point averages that were “nearly identical to many decimals”—Tara Adhikari and Dean Colarossi. The Phi Alpha Eta Award winner for 2020 was Nicole Matters.
Commencement speaker Dr. Julie Snorek (C’01), a research associate and lecturer at Dartmouth University and a 2020 Annenberg Visiting Scholar at the College, expressed great admiration for the graduating classes of 2020 and 2021.
“Principians are not to be underestimated,” she said. “I have listened to many of you talk about the palpable love here at Principia. This is something I also experienced here as a student, but what is more interesting is that you have managed to express this love during a period of time when you are all separated from each other,” Snorek said. “I also see this incredible support for each other, this compassion you have, and this level of care for one another—and I’m just floored by that. I have visited a lot of universities around the world and worked at several, and it is only here that one finds this palpable love that we are all here experiencing. What I see that to be is the superpower that you are all wielding.”