Grove City College expects to confer 578 bachelor’s degrees in the arts, science, music, electrical and mechanical engineering at its 138th Commencement.
Commencement begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 19, on the Quad between Harbison Chapel and Crawford Hall on the campus of Grove City College, weather permitting. The College will hold a Baccalaureate service at 7 p.m. Friday, May 18, also on the Quad, weather permitting.
Both events will be livestreamed. Watch Baccalaureate here and Commencement here. In addition, the College's historic 91.1 WSAJ-FM radio will carry both services live. Audio-only streaming through WSAJ will be available at www.WSAJ.com.
In case of inclement weather, both events will be held in the Arena of the Physical Learning Center on campus and tickets will be required for entry. Those without tickets may view the ceremony via simulcast in Ketler Auditorium of the Pew Fine Arts Center on campus.
Astronaut Jeffrey N. Williams (Colonel, U.S. Army, Ret.) will address graduates at Commencement. Williams, who has spent more time in space than any other American man, is an accomplished photographer and author. His book, “The Work of His Hands: A View of God’s Creation from Space,” collects photographs he took during spaceflights and missions on the International Space Station.
Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson, noted Scottish theologian and preacher, is the Baccalaureate speaker.
Both men will be awarded honorary degrees at Commencement in recognition of their outstanding contributions to their fields of endeavor. Williams will receive a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.), honoris causa, and Ferguson, a Doctor of Divinity degree (D.D.), honoris causa, from the College.
Hannah L. Vaccaro ’18 will serve as student speaker at Commencement. Vaccaro, of Merrimack, N.H., is an Entrepreneurship major.
The Class of 2018 is one of the more distinguished graduation cohorts in College history, with 40 percent earning cum laude, magna cum laude or summa cum laude honors.
Grove City College’s 83-percent graduation rate is 24 points higher than the national average. Forty-one percent of alumni graduate debt-free, thanks to the College’s historic commitment to affordability and merit and need based financial aid that the private college provides with no support from the federal government.
If past is prologue, upwards of 96 percent of the graduating class will have jobs or be in graduate school within six months. The average starting salary for a Grove City College graduate is $50,700, according to PayScale.