Graduates Receive Degrees May 5
Guilford will hold the commencement exercises of its 175th year at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, May 5, on the lawn in front of King Hall. President Kent Chabotar will preside over his 10th commencement and give the charge to the graduates.
Invited speaker Patti Digh ’82, a writer, teacher, speaker and social justice activist, will deliver remarks entitled The Geography of Verbs. Students Tiffany Lauderbaugh Kallam ’12 and Justin Scott Kirchner ’12 also will speak.
The ceremony will include students who completed degree requirements during the spring 2012, summer 2011 and fall 2011 semesters. In the event of rain, the ceremony will be in Ragan-Brown Field House.
Patti Digh is a writer, a teacher, a speaker and a social justice activist. “And my greatest and most significant job is as a mother to my two daughters,” she says. She has written six books, including Life is a Verb, one of the five finalists for the Books for a Better Life award, as well as What I Wish For You which all our graduates are receiving from her.
Patti earned her master’s degree in English and art history from the University of Virginia in 1985 and designed diversity and leadership initiatives and training for clients around the world for two decades. She has traveled to more than 60 countries including Germany for study abroad while at Guilford.
Tiffany Lauderbaugh Kallam, originally from Bemidji, Minn., graduates with a major in community and justice policy studies and a minor in psychology. She led an effort to launch a liberal arts prison education initiative and has served as a Gateways to Success mentor and a student marshal. A fixture on the dean’s list, she received the Justice and Policy Studies Outstanding Student and Barton Parks Community Justice awards, but is most proud of her two sons, Brendan and Roman.
Justin Scott Kirchner, from Lexington, Ky., has earned a degree in political science and minors in African studies and African-American studies. In addition to serving on the editorial board of The Guilfordian as multi-media manager and film editor, he has been active with the Sexual Assault Awareness, Support and Advocacy group, the Men’s Rugby Team and WQFS. He studied abroad at Ghana’s University of Cape Coast, focusing on international development and working on rural agricultural projects.
The College will hold a baccalaureate service for graduates, their families and friends at 6 p.m. Friday, May 4, in Dana Auditorium.
