Senior Dinner Celebration
23 March 2018 Senior Dinner Celebration
With the excitement of Commencement in the air, the Classes of 2010 gathered for their Senior Dinner to share memories and listen to the advice of their professors and mentors, before gearing up for the Senior Toast and a performance by the Presidents Garage Band.
In their address before dinner Eugen Baer and Cerri Banks, deans of Hobart and William Smith respectively, reminded seniors of their achievements andinstructed them tocelebrate their lives.
During your years here, you have engaged intellectually, in global and local communities, studied hard and played hard, and through it all, you have accomplished this extraordinary thing, Banks said.
Offering his commendations on jobs well done, Rodmon King of the philosophy department, the faculty speaker nominated by the Classes of 2010, also had a bit of advice to seniors.
Why am I telling you congratulations? he asked. Graduation is a testament to your strength and endurance, but thats not why you deserve congratulations. The reason you deserve congratulations is because of the people youve become while you were here. Youve grown intellectually, academically, personally.
Between rounds of applause, cheers and laughs, King asked what that growth meant.
As you continue the journey you started when you set foot on campus, I ask you to aim that part of you at excellence, he said. As you go away from this place, think about your life goals and aim at the most complete and fulfilling life you can, a life worthy and worthwhile of the excellence inside each of you.
The Senior Week festivities continued later into the night with the Senior Toast in the Vandervort Room, where the Presidents Garage Band rocked out with tunes like Sweet Caroline, Louie, Louie and Twist and Shout. The band, composed of deans, faculty and staff from all sectors of campus, was joined by seniors Dan De Nose and Libby Greene and Sodexo Employee Betty Walther during an encore performance of Three Dog Nights Joy to the World.
But first, President Mark D. Gearan raised his glass to seniors.
On behalf of the faculty, staff and your fellow students, I want to propose a toast to the Classes of 2010, and thank you for the difference youve made-on campus, in our local community and around the world, Gearan said. Whatever greatness they surely lead to, we hope your paths will eventually take you back home to Geneva.