McDaniel celebrates 155th Commencement

Graduate Commencement speaker is Simeon K. Schlossberg, associate professor of Counseling at McDaniel.

Awards to be given during the graduate commencement ceremony include the Shelton Adjunct Faculty Award to an adjunct faculty member whose teaching demonstrates a commitment to excellence and genuine care for students and the B. Jill Brooks Hodge Professional Development Award to a graduate student who has demonstrated academic excellence, and who is preferably majoring in Deaf Education.

Graduate Commencement Ceremony Instructions
Click here for additional Graduate Ceremony instructions.
•  Students assemble at McDaniel’s Baker Memorial Chapel at 10 a.m. (Note: rain location is Old Gill Gym)
•  Procession begins at 10:45 a.m. from Baker Memorial Chapel to Gill Center. (In case of rain, students proceed to Gill Center from Old Gill Gym.)

Military and business leader Linda L. Singh is the Commencement speaker for the college’s undergraduate ceremony. 

Winners of two undergraduate awards are revealed during the undergraduate commencement ceremony. The Argonaut Award, to the graduating senior with the highest cumulative grade-point average, and the Edith Farr Ridington Writing Award, to the graduating senior whose capstone paper is deemed outstanding, are presented.

The Ira G. Zepp Distinguished Teaching Award, which recognizes inspired classroom work and dedication to students, is also given to an outstanding faculty member during the undergraduate commencement ceremony.

Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony Instructions:
Click here for additional Undergraduate Ceremony instructions.
•  Students assemble at McDaniel’s Baker Memorial Chapel at  noon (Note: rain location is Old Gill Gym)
•  Procession begins at 12:45 p.m. from Baker Memorial Chapel to Gill Center. (In case of rain, students proceed to Gill Center from Old Gill Gym.)
•  Immediately following the undergraduate ceremony, the new graduates have the opportunity to ring the Old Main bell located in Memorial Plaza signaling the completion of their degrees. (Students also ring the bell as entering first-year students into the McDaniel community.)

In conjunction with Commencement, several events take place Thursday, May 22:

• At 10 a.m., seven graduating students from McDaniel are commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army during the Green Terror Battalion Army ROTC Commissioning Ceremony in Baker Memorial Chapel. Retired Colonel James E. Martin Jr. ’93, current president of the college’s Alumni Council and vice president of executive technology services for Gartner’s large enterprise division, is the guest speaker.

Students who are being commissioned are Kevin David Aquino, Theatre Arts and Spanish major from Mount Airy, Maryland, Joshua S. Carter, Criminal Justice major from Port Deposit, Maryland, Jolie A. Gray, Business Administration major from Crownsville, Maryland, Justin K. Long, Criminal Justice major from Sykesville, Maryland, Elana Kara Petrone, English major from Colonial Heights, Virginia, Connor M. Ward, Kinesiology major from Woolwich Township, New Jersey, and Rahmel X. Bellebranche of Greenville, South Carolina, who is earning a master's degree in Kinesiology.

• At 6 p.m., graduating seniors will process through Ward Memorial Arch prior to the Senior Investiture and Honors Convocation at 6:30 p.m., where academic, activity, and leadership awards will be presented, including the Bates Prize and the Mary Ward Lewis Prize to the most outstanding graduating class members who have made the best record during their undergraduate course.