Good Luck, Class of 2016!
The threat of rain wasn’t enough to put a damper on Lafayette’s 181st Commencement. The ceremony went off as planned on the Quad and 568 graduating seniors eagerly accepted their diplomas.
Moving Up
Our Grads are off to do Great Things
A software engineer at Google, a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard, a Fulbright Scholar teaching English in Venezuela. Students come to Lafayette to earn a degree in a field they feel passionate about. They leave prepared to make their mark on the world.
The Principal Speakers
The Commencement ceremony featured an address by William D. Adams, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as farewell remarks from President Alison Byerly and Pepper Prize Winner Guilherme Ferreira de Avila ’16.
NEH Chairman William Adams
"Lafayette and other places like it remain stubbornly committed to the notion that we must educate the whole person, and that the whole person embraces our lives in the economic order, in the political order, as members of the global order, our lives as parents and friends and spouses and partners."
Read and listen to his Commencement speech
Guilherme Ferreira de Avila ’16
"So many paths and adventures are out there for us in a world of known unknowns. We have the privilege to take risks for us and for others, to impact the world in a positive and unique way."
Read and listen to his Pepper Prize speech
President Alison Byerly
"We hope wherever your voyage takes you, you will continue to be sustained by the strength of the Lafayette community: by the faculty who mentored you, the staff who supported you, and the friends you have made."
Read and listen to her farewell remarksLafayette's Highest Honor
Barb Levy '77 Receives the Lafayette Medal
Edward Ahart ’69, chair of the Board of Trustees, recognized Barbara Levy '77 as the recipient of the Lafayette Medal for Distinguished Service. The medal is the College’s premier award for volunteers, given to those who have a demonstrated record of voluntary service in a variety of areas with noteworthy achievement in each. Levy is the eleventh recipient.
Faculty and Staff Recognition
President Byerly also congratulated the recipients of the annual Lafayette awards for distinguished teaching, scholarship, and service to the College and recognized Professor William Miles, who is retiring and has been elected to emeritus status.
