Skidmore celebrates graduating Class of 2023 with 112th ceremony
Skidmore College celebrated its Class of 2023 with a commencement ceremony.
Graduates were accompanied by family, friends, faculty, and staff at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center Saturday morning. The event marked the 112th commencement in the college’s history.
Skidmore College’s Class of 2023 was comprised of 634 graduates. There were 435 of whom earned their Bachelor of Arts degrees and 199 of whom earned their Bachelor of Science degrees.
The graduates are made up of students from 35 states and or territories. They also hailed from 50 countries of citizenship and 36 are dual citizens. Plus, 104 or 16 percent are first generation. Additionally, 72 or 11 percent were international students.
The 634 graduates have collectively completed 746 majors and 346 minors. Their most popular majors were psychology, business, English, economics, and art. Their most popular minors were business, art, environmental sciences/studies, education studies, and Spanish. They collected hundreds of awards and memberships in national honor societies, are coauthors on published research, and have presented at numerous academic conferences.
Skidmore conferred honorary degrees during the commencement ceremony upon renowned academic, author, and art historian Mary Schmidt Campbell and accomplished scholar, teacher, and civil rights attorney Frederick M. Lawrence. Joowon Park, assistant professor of anthropology and an affiliate faculty member in Skidmore’s Asian Studies and International Affairs programs, was faculty speaker.
Board of Trustees Chair Nancy W. Hamilton, Alumni Association President Robert F. Resnick, Class of 2023 President Issy Mejia, Senior Gift project leaders Alex Lewis and Iti Singh, and Skidmore College President Marc Conner all spoke and offered their congratulations.
Halfway through their second semester at Skidmore, students came face to face with the once unimaginable — a global pandemic that brought the entire world to a standstill. Yet, members of the Class of 2023 did more than merely get through it: They stood in solidarity with one another, showed genuine empathy to those near and far, rolled up their sleeves, and took action.
Despite it all, the graduates thrived: They held strong and completed their degrees. They celebrated big wins — internships, athletics, and exam results — and encountered moments of joy along the way. On campus and across the globe, they’ve made important discoveries about our world and about themselves.
Members of the Class of 2023 participated in nearly 50 faculty-student summer collaborative research projects. More than 100 students took advantage of the Summer Experience Fund to pursue internships designed to broaden their horizons and support their dreams.
Nowhere did a mix of creativity and excellence manifest itself better than at the 24th Academic Festival where students shared senior theses and research projects with the Skidmore community as the culmination of their collegiate academic careers. This year’s festival featured more than 180 seniors from disciplines spanning the arts, sciences, social sciences, and humanities, as well as preprofessional majors.
In another nod to the breadth and depth of Skidmore’s academic offerings, the Class’s four Periclean Scholar Award recipients — chosen for the notable level of excellence in their thesis work — represent religious studies, English, mathematics and statistics, American studies, and chemistry.
Student-athletes, who missed out on games and even seasons at the height of the pandemic, made a roaring return.
In the classroom, 53 senior student-athletes earned a grade point average of 3.67 or higher and 11 had perfect 4.0 GPAs, when they were inducted in the Thoroughbred Society this spring. On the field, they contributed with their teams to some impressive accomplishments.
Beginning with their summer reading book — ”Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong about the World—and Why Things are Better Than You Think” — and fueled by the idea that Creative Thought Matters, members of the Class of 2023 made the Skidmore College campus their own.
They have volunteered thousands of hours to local and national causes, addressing issues that are dear to them, including disabilities and autism, food insecurity and sustainability, public health policy, environmental justice, and climate action. They launched mutual aid funds and found creative ways — from selling their own art and donating their time and skills — to support their peers in times of need.
As a class and a community, they rallied for justice. They’ve dug into issues of speech and expression on college campuses, educated one another about true allyship for the LGBTQ+ community, and pushed Skidmore toward becoming a singleuse, plastic-free campus.
They built businesses and led and launched new clubs and programs designed specifically to hold space and give voice to the voiceless. They wrote plays, composed music, produced documentaries and challenged our perceptions through sound and art. They worked hard to protect and preserve the natural beauty of the Skidmore College campus and the fragile ecosystems that are relied on.