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MHC Graduation 2009
Mars Hill College conferred degrees to 137 students on Saturday, May 9, in Moore Auditorium. Graduates, family and friends greeted each other and lingered afterward on the Quad. Photo by Joshua Doby.
Traffic Slows On 213 to Make Way for Graduation in Moore
Story by Yonatan Arnold
Click Here for Slideshow by Joshua Doby
On Saturday, May 9, 137 students completed their college careers and marked the 152nd year of Mars Hill College. The weather was nice and the skies were clear for graduation day that took place at Moore Auditorium, crowded to capacity.
Local police and campus security guided traffic in front of Moore because there were many visitors on campus, and the auditorium was virtually full. Many coaches from the schools 19 sports teams were on hand. Each student graduating was limited to 10 tickets for family and friends. Tickets were scarce for the unprepared, but many did get in because a few graduates had extra tickets.
The opening of the ceremonies started with a prelude. Faculty walked into the auditorium first behind faculty president Phyllis Smith. Then students entered the room. One graduate hurt her ankle and could not walk in without assistance. Because of her injury, she received her diploma in her seat.
In opening remarks, President Dan Lunsford said he was very proud of the graduates and of the 152nd graduation. He thanked the parents and the faculty members for helping the graduates make it through four years, and even through the “five-year plan.” Daniel Craig Goforth, son of Craig Goforth, dean of student affairs, gave the opening invocation.
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Bruce W. Boyles, Jr., hoped the students would embrace what they had learned and offered best wishes for them in the future.
Jessica Lynn Blanford, a women’s basketball player, made the first student address. She was emotional at times when she was reminiscing about her four years at Mars Hill. She said some of the most memorable times were when she went to Nina Pollard’s house to eat a nice home-cooked meal. Pollard is outgoing vice president for academic and student affairs, Blandford also showed President Lundsford how to use an IPOD while working in his office, and she enjoyed Ms.Virginia’s omelets in the cafeteria. She said that she liked how the “dean (Goforth) knows everybody’s name.” She said it was a time to “gain great amounts of knowledge” and the school built her character. Blanford likened life to a dangerous rocky road, but she said there were diamonds on that road that would shape her and her classmates’ lives forever.
After Blanford, singers Hilary Bunch, Ashley Long, Christopher Caggianno, Jr., and Daniel Hensley sang “The New World” from Songs for a New World.
Rondon Leon Bacchus from Trinidad spoke next. He was on the men’s soccer team. He said he was now “prepared for a new journey” and thanked God, faculty, staff and the “underlying support” of others who have helped many of the graduates get through the program. Bacchus said he is a very “proud ambassador of Mars Hill College,” and he encouraged other students to be as well. He closed by quoting President Barack Obama by saying “Yes, we can.”
Karen Corpening Goins offered thoughts as a student graduate of the ACCESS program at Mars Hill. She said of the other graduates that she was “old enough to be their mothers,” and she was “not even on the five-year plan.” She had started college then stopped going after three years. She then become a student teacher and started a family but did not go back to school. After her kids were almost ready to go to college, too, she went back to receive her teaching degree.
Lunsford recognized outgoing vice president Pollard as she was “graduating to retirement.” In her four years, he said he had discovered her weakness -- Diet Coke. The president gave Pollard a Diet Coke oval “so she won’t forget us.”
“I was not expecting that,” she said a bit tickled, then began conferring the degrees.
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