News & Publications
NEH Chairman to Give Commencement Speech at St. John's College
FOR RELEASE: April 30, 2008
CONTACT: Patricia Dempsey 410-626-2539
Patricia.Dempsey@sjca.edu
One hundred and six St. John's College seniors, having completed their senior essays and defended them in oral examinations, are expected to receive their diplomas at the college's 216th commencement ceremony on the college's front lawn on May 11, at 10:30 a.m.'The graduating seniors represent 27 states, Puerto Rico, India, and Japan. Twenty-two students from the Graduate Institute will receive their master's degrees.
Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, will give the commencement speech. Cole came to NEH in 2001 from Indiana University in Bloomington, where he was Distinguished Professor of Art History and Professor of Comparative Literature. Appointed by President George W. Bush, Cole was chosen for a second term in 2005, a reappointment unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate.
In his remarks to the St. John's class of 2008, Cole says he will ask the graduates to reflect on the unique and extraordinary liberal education they have received at St. John's and encourage them to use it in ways that will benefit others and society as a whole.
"It is a tremendous honor to have been chosen by the Class of 2008 at St. John's College to speak at their commencement," says Cole. "St. John's offers its students not merely vocational skills or knowledge, but rather something of truly enduring value: the most fundamental skills of careful reading, writing, thinking, and discussion, as well as a sense of the unity of all knowledge and of the great intellectual conversations and traditions of our civilization."
As NEH chairman, Cole has launched "We the People," an initiative to encourage the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture. The initiative includes summer workshops at our nation's historic landmarks to enhance teachers' knowledge of American history, and a program to distribute classic children's books to libraries and schools across the country.
Cole's connection with the Endowment dates back to his receiving an NEH fellowship to research early Florentine painting. He subsequently served as a panelist in NEH's peer review system, and then as a member for 7 years of the National Council on the Humanities, a presidentially appointed 26-member advisory board to NEH.
Cole attended Case Western Reserve University and earned his master's degree from Oberlin College and his doctorate from Bryn Mawr College. Cole has written 14 books, many of them about the Renaissance. His most recent book is "The Informed Eye: Understanding Masterpieces of Western Art."
Graduating seniors from Maryland are: Gregory Ross Singer and Aurora Dare Rivendale, of Annapolis; Caroline Wald Berry, Anna Weingast Brown, and Daniel Wilhelm Wheatley of Baltimore; John Gordon Cooke VI, of Upper Marlboro; Annelies Jane de Groot and Charles William Hamm, of Bethesda; Giovanni Lyon Rogers Smedley and Sarah Kathryn Fary, of Silver Spring; Anne Seaver Fleming and Charles Henry Fleming, of Gaithersburg; Jeffrey Ryan McIlvain and Rachael Noel Boyce, of Westminster; Clarke Mathew-Thomas Saylor, of Garrison; Allison Charlotte Hauspurg, of Potomac, and Sterling Alexander Schlegel, of West River.
Graduate students from Maryland are: John Talbot Manvel, Jr., of Annapolis; Donald Newton Briggs, of Emmitsburg; Walter Roderick Cofield, Jr., of Salisbury; Miriam Shulamit Jacobs, of Severna Park; and Gareth Thomas Williams, of Towson.
In case of rain, commencement exercises will take place in Francis Scott Key Auditorium, where admission will be by ticket only and limited to immediate family of the graduates. From 10:15 a.m. to noon, College Avenue will be closed to traffic from St. John's Street to King George Street; the first block of Prince George Street will be closed as well.