Wes­ley Col­lege Awards Nearly 400 Diplo­mas Dur­ing the 2008-09 Aca­d­e­mic Year

By Mark Gregorio

Com­mence­ment Speaker U.S. Sen­a­tor Edward Kaufman

Through the end of the spring 2009 semes­ter, Delaware’s old­est pri­vate col­lege con­ferred a total of 397 degrees. Dur­ing the most recent Com­mence­ment exer­cises, 237 stu­dents who col­lec­tively com­pleted 24 asso­ciate, 142 bac­calau­re­ate, 49 nurs­ing and 22 master’s degrees were rec­og­nized for their aca­d­e­mic achieve­ments and awarded their Wes­ley diplomas.

Spe­cial guests at Com­mence­ment included United States Sen­ate mem­bers Thomas R. Carper and Edward E. Kauf­man. Both were invited by the Col­lege to deliver greet­ings and address the Wes­ley stu­dents. Sen­a­tor Carper acknowl­edged the grad­u­ates’ hard work and noted the future pos­si­bil­i­ties that await them. “You’ll have the oppor­tu­nity to pro­vide lead­er­ship in busi­nesses, schools and gov­ern­ment. Go forth, good luck, serve us well and con­grat­u­la­tions,” he said.

Sen­a­tor Kauf­man deliv­ered the Com­mence­ment address and joked with the grad­u­at­ing class. “I’ve always felt that the best line on Com­mence­ment brevity was Adlai Stevenson’s: ‘For the next 15 min­utes I am sup­posed to talk and you are sup­posed to lis­ten. I only hope we both begin and end at the same time’,” he said. “Find time to serve your com­mu­nity, to serve your coun­try. That way, as you look back on your life, no mat­ter how lit­tle or how much money you made, you can look back with sat­is­fac­tion at hav­ing helped oth­ers and answered your country’s call to duty and the recog­ni­tion that your life served a mean­ing­ful pur­pose,” Kauf­man added.

Upon con­fer­ring the degrees and award­ing the diplo­mas, Wes­ley Pres­i­dent Dr. William  John­ston con­cluded by say­ing, “It’s my duty to remind each of you that this achieve­ment we cel­e­brate today did not hap­pen in a vac­uum. It hap­pened with the love, guid­ance, sup­port and inspi­ra­tion of oth­ers along the journey.”

Also dur­ing the cer­e­mony, details of a spe­cial endowed schol­ar­ship fund were released to grad­u­ates and guests. John­ston announced that Wesley’s Stu­dent Gov­ern­ment Asso­ci­a­tion pledged a gift of $2,000 towards a $10,000 schol­ar­ship fund in honor of Andrew Geyer — a Wes­ley Col­lege senior who was killed by a sus­pected drunk dri­ver in Feb­ru­ary. “Through the help of many peo­ple and the Stu­dent Gov­ern­ment Asso­ci­a­tion, the Andrew Joseph Geyer Endowed Schol­ar­ship Fund has been estab­lished in per­pe­tu­ity,” he said. The schol­ar­ship fund will be used to sup­port future Wes­ley students.

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