69th Annual Commencement Exercises at The King’s College

On Saturday, May 6, 2017, The King’s College hosted its sixty-ninth annual commencement exercises, honoring the class of 2017, at St. George’s Episcopal Church in New York City. Hundreds gathered to celebrate the 96 students graduating.

After the procession of the board, faculty, executive staff, and students into the church, Dr. Gregory A. Thornbury, President of The King’s College, welcomed guests. Thornbury reminded attendees that while the College’s stated mission is to train up graduates to shape and eventually lead strategic public and private institutions, it is also to teach students to “walk with Jesus through the corridors of power.” “Today we are here to send 96 young men and women out in the world to do just that,” he said.

Kevin Brown, the Chief Operating Officer at The King’s College and father of 2017 graduate Emma Brown, then gave the invocation. “We pray for your continued favor as [the graduates] go from here to new careers and graduate schools, which they will help shape and eventually lead,” he said. “May they do so with humility and dependence upon you, remembering that You not only direct and control the affairs of men and nations but also of their individual lives.”

Adjunct Instructor in Music Virginia Pike and Dr. Mark Hijleh, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty, led guests in The King’s College Alma Mater, which Dr. Hijleh set to music last year. Then, Katherine Thompson, 2016-2017 Student Body President, gave a Scripture reading from Colossians 1:15-20. Thompson is headed to Washington, D.C. to serve as the Assistant to the Vice President for External Relations at the Heritage Foundation.

Joe Ricketts, entrepreneur, philanthropist, founder of the online trading company TD Ameritrade, and owner of the Chicago Cubs, gave the keynote address. “I had a commencement speech entitled ‘Faith, Family, and Careers,’” he said, “but then I decided that for this audience, it might be a little repetitive. So I decided to talk about something else. For you graduates, I’m going to talk about something that’s probably near and dear to your hearts—jobs. Where do they come from?” (Watch Ricketts’s address on YouTube.)

Ricketts said that during the 2016 presidential election, he heard many candidates talk about creating jobs. This made him curious about the connection between politics and those who pay the wages. “Jobs come from new businesses,” he said. He continued to speak about the importance of entrepreneurs, how they create jobs for others, and the importance of accommodating those who are entering the work force. “I would like to tell you my idea of why this country became rich and powerful,” he said. “We are a land of immigrants. Immigrants are something different. They’re bold. They’re imaginative. They’re not afraid to take a risk.”

Ricketts said that the United States was “populated by a people with high aspirations and big dreams…And many of these people were entrepreneurs. Some of the same characteristics it takes to be an entrepreneur,” he said, “it takes to be an immigrant. We have had more than our fair share in our country of entrepreneurs.”

Ricketts cited that economists have been saying that the new normal for economic growth in the U.S. is 3 percent. “That’s a disaster,” he said. “That can’t happen.” He charged graduates to pay attention to the politicians they’re electing and to put people in office who understand Americans are big dreamers. “It is very important for this generation to be actively involved in making sure that we have the kind of leaders that will give us growth in our economy of at least 3 percent to maintain our power and our happiness,” he concluded.

After Ricketts’s remarks, President Thornbury and Dr. Hijleh conferred degrees upon graduates. Thirty-four graduates received a Bachelor of Arts in Media, Culture, and the Arts, 32 received a Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics; 28 received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration/Management, and two received a Bachelor of Science in Finance. Twenty-six students graduated with academic honors: one summa cum laude (valedictorian Ariel Karmin), 12 magna cum laude, and 13 cum laude.

After the graduates received their degrees and were welcomed as alumni, Karmin gave the valedictory address, saying that the first time she visited King’s and New York City was the weekend of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. “I came to King’s a bookworm,” she said.

But despite social anxiety and nerdiness, I was filled with a driving sense that I was put on earth to do something, and I didn’t know what. But my beginning to that answer began with one of the final questions in my interview: How are you going to change the world? And my answer was, “I’m not.”

Now of course I wanted to, but I was afraid that approaching and pursuing that in the wrong way would be harmful both to myself and to others. Thanks to my time at King’s, I now understand this fear better and how to overcome it.

Quoting a passage from James Davison Hunter’s To Change the World, Karmin said that “whether we immediately launch into the career we’ve always wanted or we find ourselves unemployed post-graduation, it is vital that we set our identities to not rely on the progress of our careers but in the place God puts us.” She concluded, “As we figure out what comes next, let us live our lives excellently, fearlessly, and with joy. In doing so, we have the chance, as Hunter says, to make the world just a little bit better.”

President Thornbury then conferred an honorary doctorate upon keynote speaker Joe Ricketts. Christine Talbot, a member of the Parents Advisory Council and mother of 2017 graduate Mathew Salavitch gave the benediction. The ceremony then concluded with the singing of the Doxology and the new graduates recessing.

This year’s graduates are off to pursue many exciting opportunities, both in the workforce and in institutions of higher education. To highlight a few of those opportunities, Helen Healey will be working as an editorial assistant at Penguin Random House, Jonah Ortiz will be pursuing a master’s in political science at Columbia University, and Leah Contreras will be pursuing a master’s in international relations at the London School of Economics. On her experience at the College, Contreras says, “I love King’s with everything in me. The faculty are brilliant yet humble and demonstrate real care for their students.”

Watch the full Commencement ceremony on YouTube.