“You have not only been prepared for the larger world,” he said, “you have already been launched into it.”
The Rev. Meisel said numerous service learning projects, ranging from work on affordable housing and health care in Lynchburg to hunger in Haiti, would help them meet the challenges ahead.
“The state of the world is our graduation present to you,” he said. The Rev. Meisel told the students that they faced an inadequate energy supply, economic instability, global health crises, climate change, and the rise of fundamentalism.
The Rev. Meisel also noted that the Class of 2006 had witnessed tremendous transformation on the LC campus including the addition of new townhouses, and the completion of Centennial Hall, a $12.5 million, 68,000-square-foot facility that houses the schools of economics and communication, and a modern language laboratory. In addition to the physical changes, he said, the launching of the Bonner Leaders Program recommitted the college to community service and social justice.
Lynchburg College is one of only 50 institutions nationwide selected to participate in the Bonner Leaders Program. The College has awarded 20 Bonner scholarships in the past two years to encourage students to engage in service work and strengthen their leadership skills.
Lynchburg College awarded the Rev. Meisel an honorary degree on Saturday, along with three others: Joan Shepherd Jones ’77 M.Ed., the first woman from Central Virginia to serve in the House of Delegates and a member of the LC Board of Trustees; Michael Donovan, the CEO of Donovan Data Systems whose name is on the media development center in Centennial Hall; and former North Carolina state Sen. Irwin Belk, who has contributed generously to the renovation of Shellenberger Field.
LC awarded 365 bachelors, 10 MBAs and 90 MEDs. The college also awarded two posthumous degrees to: Kristy D. Overstreet, who died in an automobile accident in June 2005, and Rona L. Adams, who succumbed to breast cancer in November.
For more information, contact Shannon Brennan at 434/544-8609.
5/13/06