St. Charles student graduates from Bridgewater College
BRIDGEWATER, Va., May 19, 2015 - As Bridgewater College's graduating seniors and their families celebrated on Saturday, May 16, Dr. Phillip C. Stone, a 1965 graduate of Bridgewater College who served as the college's president from 1994 to 2010, urged the 361 graduates to retain, nurture and strengthen their core values.
His address, "Missing Pieces," noted that the process of developing one's life and character is like building a mosaic one piece at a time.
"Our lives constitute a mosaic which will be built over a lifetime," he said. "At the end of life, there will likely be pieces still missing from our mosaic, things undone, errors made and failures of one sort or another. Missing pieces will not unduly detract from the mosaics of our lives if the missing pieces are not from the core of our mosaic."
Of Saturday's graduates, 78 earned bachelor of arts degrees and 242 earned bachelor of science degrees. The college's president, Dr. David W. Bushman, conferred the degrees at the ceremony.
Eighteen members of the class graduated summa cum laude - the top academic honor which requires at least a 3.9 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale.
One of the local graduates earning summa cum laude is St. Charles resident Christian R. Lynn, majoring in psychology and applied physics, and a member of the Flory Fellowship of Scholars, Bridgewater's honors program.
Thirty-six graduates earned magna cum laude honors - 3.7 or better average. Cum laude honors, requiring a 3.4 grade-point average, were earned by 54 graduates. In addition, academic honors at each level require students to meet certain standards on a comprehensive exam; those earning summa cum laude and magna cum laude also must achieve required grade levels on an honors project.
Bridgewater College is a private, four-year liberal arts college located in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Founded in 1880, it was the state's first private, coeducational college. Today, Bridgewater College is home to approximately 1,800 undergraduate students.