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Commencement

Commencement 2023 Saturday, May 20, 2023

What: McDaniel College’s 153rd Commencement Ceremony
Who: McDaniel College Class of 2023
When: May 20, 2023
Graduate Ceremony: 10 a.m.
Undergraduate Ceremony: 2 p.m.
Where: Gill Center (Live video streams of both ceremonies will also be available on Commencement day.)
Please continue to check this webpage for the most up-to-date commencement information and livestream links.

Undergraduate Ceremony Speaker

Legendary Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and bestselling author, Bob Woodward

Legendary Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Bob Woodward serves as the speaker for the undergraduate ceremony. Woodward is an associate editor of The Washington Post, where he has worked since 1971. He has shared in two Pulitzer Prizes, first for the coverage of the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein in 1973, and second in 2002 as the lead reporter for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The author of 21 bestsellers, including “All the President’s Men” and, most recently, “Peril” on the transition from the Trump to the Biden administration, he has earned nearly every major American journalism award.

Bob Woodward

Undergraduate Commencement speaker is legendary Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and bestselling author Bob Woodward.

Graduate Ceremony Speaker

Sharon Love M.S. '76, founder of the One Love Foundation

Sharon Love, who graduated from the college with a master’s degree in Deaf Education in 1976, provides remarks during the graduate ceremony. A retired teacher, Love is determined to bring awareness to domestic violence in honor of her daughter Yeardley, a college lacrosse player who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend just weeks before her graduation. Together with her daughter Lexie, she founded the One Love Foundation, a national nonprofit organization whose goal is to end relationship abuse by educating, empowering, and activating young people in a movement for social change.

Alumna Sharon Love and daughter and Yeardley standing together.

Sharon Love M.S. '76 with her daughter Yeardley.

The six ROTC cadets pose together for a photo.

Friday, May 19, 10 a.m. ROTC Commissioning Baker Memorial Chapel

Graduating seniors from McDaniel who are part of the Green Terror Battalion Army ROTC program are commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army. Army ROTC has been a tradition at the college since 1919, and the Green Terror Battalion, which includes cadets from McDaniel, Hood College and Mount St. Mary’s, is one of the oldest ROTC programs in the nation.

Arch Walk 2022

Friday, May 19, 6:00 p.m. Senior Arch Processional Baker Memorial Chapel

Graduates in cap and gown seated holding candles during ceremony.

Friday, May 19, 6:30 p.m. Senior Investiture and Honors Convocation Baker Memorial Chapel

Graduating seniors receive academic, activity and leadership awards during McDaniel College’s annual Senior Investiture and Honors Convocation. (Doors open at 6 p.m. for family and friends.)