MIDDLEBURY — Here come the graduates!
If Middlebury seems a little more crowded than usual this weekend it may have something to do with the 214th Middlebury College Commencement, which will take place Sunday on the campus.
Every year at this time thousands of proud parents and other family and friends come to Addison County to applaud some speeches, watch the pride of the college collect their diplomas and shower the five hundred and something new graduates with their best wishes.
After a senior barbeque on Thursday evening, and a baccalaureate service on Saturday afternoon, the main event get under way on Sunday morning. Expect to see graduates lining up on the east side of Old Chapel sometime after 9 a.m., with the actual commencement exercises starting at 10 a.m. behind Munroe and Voter halls.
Highly regarded novelist and humanitarian Julia Alvarez will deliver this year’s commencement address. Last summer, President Barack Obama awarded Alvarez the National Medal of Arts in a ceremony at the White House. The National Endowment for the Arts commended her work, noting that “she illustrates the complexity of navigating two worlds and reveals the human capacity for strength in the face of oppression.”
The college will also award several honorary degrees at commencement, including Doctor of Education honors to Weybridge Elementary School Principal Christina Johnston, who has been an educator for 35 years and principal in Weybridge since 1993. The other honorary degree recipients are biologist Martin Chalfie, Grammy-award winning violinist Hilary Hahn and political theorist Eric Nelson.
As of Wednesday afternoons, the weather forecasters were predicting 76 degrees and a 50 percent chance of afternoon showers for Sunday.