Class of 2025: “This isn’t the end of your Hanover experience, this is just the beginning”
Hanover College celebrated its 192nd Commencement with the conferral of bachelor’s degrees to the Class of 2025. The ceremony was held Saturday, May 24, during a mid-morning ceremony at The Point overlooking the Ohio River.
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Hanover President Lake Lambert conferred degrees to members of the Class of 2025. Presented by Carey Adams, provost and vice president for academic affairs, 223 students walked across the stage, including 30 legacy students whose parents or other close family members attended the College. More than 47 percent of the senior class – 107 students – graduated with honors. Thirty-one students achieved high honors (magna cum laude) and 29 completed their degrees with highest honors (summa cum laude).
Lambert delivered welcoming remarks and an opening address. During his comments, he stated, “As you depart today as Hanover College graduates, we have great hopes and high expectations for your future. I hope we have taught you many things, but one thing I’d like to single out today is that I hope you have learned how to change your mind. Being able to change your mind – and change it for the right reasons – is more important than ever. It requires sifting through fact, fiction and opinion. It requires weighing evidence. It requires seeking additional data, learning from your experience and also learning from the experience of others.”
Lambert continued, “Changing your mind requires intellectual humility. It requires a recognition, an awareness that what I know may not be true or, perhaps, it was true but now it’s not. I think that holding knowledge to be so tentative, so fluid, makes many people uneasy. I hope you, our graduates, have learned this lesson by your experience here. We must hold onto our facts and ideas, but we should not hold them so tightly that we can no longer be persuaded by new data, new circumstances and new ways of doing things.
Katherine Bettner ’25, a double major in business and psychology and cum laude graduate, served as senior speaker.
Bettner, a member of Phi Mu sorority and the College’s soccer team, noted, “They say ’people make the place,’ and looking back at the last four years, I know that’s true. It wasn’t just the campus or the classes, it was the everyday moments with friends that made this place feel like home. I’ll always be thankful to have been part of such a special community at Hanover.”
Following Bettner’s address, Raj Sharma ’25, Lexi Traylor ’25, Annalise Bassett ’25 and Ethan Geraci ’25 were recognized as the Class of 2025’s top award recipients.
Sharma earned the Henry C. Long Citation for Scholarship and General Excellence. Taylor merited the John Finley Crowe Citation for Scholarship and General Excellence. Bassett and Geraci each received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for community service.
Six retiring educators were acknowledged during the ceremony. The group, which included Lynn Nichols Hall ’82 (athletics), Jeffrey Phillips, Ph.D. (engineering), J. Michael Raley, Ph.D. (history), Bryant Stamford, Ph.D. (kinesiology and integrative physiology), Bill Tereshko (kinesiology and integrative physiology) and Heyo Van Iten, Ph.D. (geology), collectively served the campus community for 185 years.
Jeff Studds ’77, president of the Alumni Leadership Council, welcomed the graduating seniors into the Hanover College Alumni Association.
Studds, a longtime educator and executive, stated, “Education, friends and values. These are what I’ve carried away from Hanover College. These have helped me make a happy, successful and fulfilled life. These are the things that you will also carry with you. These are the things that have changed you for the better as you head out to grad school and careers. These are the things that you share with every Hanover grad since the doors opened in 1827. This isn’t the end of your Hanover experience. This is just the beginning. Welcome new alumni, Class of 2025.”
The commencement activities included live choral performances by the Hanover College Choir and instrumentals by the Hanover College Instrumental Ensemble. Both groups include members of the campus and local communities. The choir is directed by Madlen Batchvarova, professor of music. The instrumentalists are directed by Jonathan Stanley, assistant professor of music.
The Rev. Catherine Y.E. Knott, Ball Family Chaplain, performed the invocation and benediction.
Marshals for commencement activities included Tereshko and faculty members Ann Kirkland, professor of French, and Dan Murphy ‘77, professor of history.
