Marlboro Graduates Class of 2019

“I didn’t know when I was attending Marlboro that I was actually training for this job that I would end up passionately want to do,” said radio producer Sean Cole ’93, honorary degree recipient and commencement speaker at Marlboro’s 2019 graduation ceremony. Sean alluded to the original Karate Kid movie to illustrate how someone can learn something without knowing it. “This has happened to me, in my life, over and over again.”

On a rainy, even snowy, May 12, the Marlboro College community was pleased to celebrate the college’s latest graduates with a ceremony in Persons Auditorium. Degrees were conferred upon a total of 49 graduates, including 26 undergraduates and 23 graduate students, who were applauded for their Plans of Concentration, Capstone projects, and many other accomplishments.

“One of the great joys of living and working at Marlboro is to witness our students live their passions, learn new skills and grow into engaged citizens,” said President Kevin Quigley in his remarks. “Like a parent who is never supposed to make comparisons among children, at some risk I want to say: this graduating class is especially dear to me. We came to Marlboro at the same time and have learned so much together.”

Kevin cited the extraordinary breadth of their interests demonstrated by this year’s graduates, as illustrated by Plans listed in the commencement program. “To name just a few: the economics of unemployment in France, holistic education, sustainable agriculture, Christian understanding of suffering, anti-immigrant sentiment, economics of wellbeing, carnivore ecology, ceramic sculpture and cool Japan, approaches to gender, statistical and machine learning, and distributed networking.”

Three honorary degrees were also conferred, two of them to local artists and longtime college supporters Emily Mason and Trustee Wolf Kahn. Their daughter Melany Kahn was present to accept the degrees for her parents, and share some of their words and their abiding interest in the college. The third honorary degree was for Sean Cole, commencement speaker.

“I’m so honored and grateful to have this chance to talk to you,” said Sean. “I’ve met a bunch of you; I couldn’t be more excited about how you are all going to benefit the world. Congratulations. Off you go.”

See transcripts, photos (still to come), and a full video of Commencement 2019.