Knox College President C. Andrew McGadney Commencement 2025 Speech

  Good Morning!
  
What a wonderful moment it is to gather together here on the South Lawn to celebrate the achievements of the Members of the Class of 2025. 
 
Graduates, you learned from our amazing faculty and were mentored by our dedicated staff. You made new friends, learned new skills, and were exposed to new ideas that opened up worlds of possibilities for you. All these experiences have led to this moment, your graduation from Knox College. 
 
At Knox, we are a community of individuals from diverse backgrounds challenging each other to explore, understand and improve ourselves, our society and our world.
 
For those of you who have NOT read the College Catalogue recently, this is the first line of our mission. —-If you would like a refresher, the entire mission statement is at the very end of your program. —-This mission guides our work here at Knox every day, in times of celebration and times of crisis, or on any given Tuesday. It is our guide, our compass, our North Star, our foundation.   
 
As the College’s mission further states: “ We provide an environment where students and faculty work closely together and where teaching is characterized by inviting and expecting students to pursue fundamental questions in order to reach their own reflective but independent judgments.”
 
Let me repeat that last bit: “Where teaching is characterized by inviting and expecting students to pursue fundamental questions in order to reach their own reflective but independent judgments.”
 
It is more important than ever that Knox introduces students to ideas and information that helps them broaden their perspective and then gives them the tools to shape their individual beliefs, to create pathways to success, and to become active and engaged citizens. 
 
And as we all know, it is better to show than to tell, so I’m going ask members of the Class of 2025 to raise your hand and keep it raised if :

• You participated in an immersive term or program. 
• You are a student-athlete.
• You held a student leadership position on campus: a peer educator, orientation leader, RA, or leader of a club or organization
• You are a member of a Greek organization.
• You studied abroad.
• You conducted independent research.
• You performed or displayed your creative work on- or off-campus . . . or both.
• You volunteered in the Galesburg community.
• You held a campus job.
• You are from Illinois.
• You came to Knox from another country.
• You came to Knox from another state.
• You are from Galesburg.  

All of these graduates you see with their hands raised here before us demonstrate who Knox is--a community made up of individuals coming together from around the globe to learn and discover their place in the world.
 
Some are heading to graduate school– at the University of Albany to receive a Ph.D. in biology, the University of Missouri School of Law, Loyola University for a Ph.D. in American history and public history, the University of Chicago Divinity School, or Rush University to receive a master’s degree in nursing. 
 
Others are joining the workforce as a technical writer at CrowdStrike, an interpretive park ranger at Fire Island National Seashore, or a sales representative at Total Quality Logistics.
 
All graduates leave Knox with a life-changing education that empowers them to find personal success and to make the world a better place. 

Let’s applaud them all for their resilience, dedication, and commitment to achieving this tremendous milestone.
 
These students are why a Knox education--a liberal arts education--remains relevant and needed at this particular moment in history. And why the United States’ educational system is viewed as the best in the world. So much so that families, like many of you here or watching today, send their children to colleges like Knox thousands of miles away from home. Thank you for making the journey to Knox, whether from down the street, or the other side of the world. Our community is stronger and richer, with each of you in it. 
 
Graduates, many of us started our Knox journey together in 2021, and I will remember your class fondly as we navigated a new environment coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. In many ways we had to rebuild the Knox experience together. Moving from remote leaning, back into the classroom, renewing and reimagining Knox traditions. I know that we all grew as individuals and as a community over the last four years. You have left your mark on Knox, and all of us, in ways that few classes before you have done. You persevered, you challenged us and each other, you stepped into the unknown, sometimes with hesitation, and emerged on the other side, confident and strong. And, finally, to everyone who has joined us here today, I ask one thing of you: 
 
Remember what you hear and see today. Remember the accomplishments of our students, remember the people who held you up when you were struggling, who cheered you on when you needed that extra boost of encouragement, and remember that you will always have a home here in Galesburg. 
 
Thank you and congratulations to the great Class of 2025!