Grove City College’s Class of 2019 is well equipped to face the “tough and exciting” challenges of a disrupted world, according to U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who will deliver the commencement speech at the private Christian liberal arts college on Saturday, May 18.
“I’m just there to offer some encouragement,” said Sasse, a lawmaker known nationally for seeking consensus without sacrificing principle, speaking truth to power and taking on some of the most pressing issues facing American society.
“The class of 2019 is entering the workforce at an incredibly disruptive time, and Grove City College students have an important role to play,” he said this week in advance of his address. “Technology is upending everything from work to friendships. Americans are enjoying unprecedented economic prosperity, but we’ve got a crisis of loneliness.”
Grove City College’s mission is to equip students to pursue their unique callings through an academically excellent and Christ-centered learning and living experience, which is distinguished by a commitment to affordability and its promotion of the Christian worldview, the foundations of free society and the love of neighbor.
That distinctive perspective on higher education has a profound impact on alumni – and society – as they make their way in their careers, build strong families and contribute to their communities. Sasse said they are ready for the challenges that lay ahead and called to meet them.
“Grove City’s graduates aren’t just commencing with a degree but with a theological framework. It’s a foundation that says we’re not meant to be just consumers – we’re supposed to be rooted producers. We’re called to be men and women who know that, in an age of profound loneliness, anxiety, and uncertainty, our highest calling is to glorify God by loving our neighbors. Grove City College graduates can’t dismiss or detach from the challenges of our broken world. After all, their education calls them to pursue good – and not as an abstract but as a concrete, in the nitty-gritty details of being called to serve our neighbors face-to-face and hand-in-hand. It’s tough and it’s exciting,” Sasse said.
Grove City College’s 139th Commencement begins at 10 a.m. Saturday. The College will award 511 undergraduate degrees in the arts, sciences, engineering and music. Sasse and Rev. Rufus Smith IV will be awarded honorary degrees.
Can’t be here in person? Don’t miss it online at www.gcc.edu/livestream.