{"id":6375,"date":"2026-05-15T14:20:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T18:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/?page_id=6375"},"modified":"2026-05-15T14:20:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T18:20:41","slug":"commencement-2022","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/fall-2022\/along-the-walk\/commencement-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAim for building bridges instead of creating chasms,\u201d said painter and poet Raja Changez Sultan \u201972 to the graduates of the Trinity College Class of 2022 during his Commencement address on Sunday, May 22. \u201cThe diversity that you find around the globe is our collective strength.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A crowd gathered on the Main Quadrangle witnessed more than 520 students receive their degrees. Among the undergraduates, 320 received B.A. degrees, and 188 were awarded B.S. degrees. Six of the undergraduate degree recipients were\u00a0Individualized Degree Program\u00a0(IDP) students. In addition, 14 graduate students received\u00a0M.A. degrees.<\/p>\n<p>Sultan, an internationally renowned artist from Pakistan, received an honorary doctor of fine arts degree in recognition of his distinguished career and his devotion to a more just society for his home country and for the world. Speaking remotely, he offered advice to the graduates before reading an excerpt from one of his poems.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6391\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6391\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6391 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/220522_Commencement_240-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/220522_Commencement_240-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/220522_Commencement_240-500x334.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/220522_Commencement_240.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6391\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Honorary degree recipients Cornelia Parsons Thornburgh \u201980 and Lloyd Alexander Lewis Jr. \u201969 with Trinity President Joanne Berger-Sweeney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Sultan implored the Class of 2022 to strive for a balance between power and wisdom and to shun shortcuts. \u201cSuccess has always come through dedication, hard work, and commitment,\u201d he added. \u201cMay your journey be long and purposeful, and may each of you leave an indelible mark on the sands of time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Honorary degrees also were presented to Lloyd Alexander Lewis Jr. \u201969, the first African American from Alexandria, Virginia, to be ordained to the priesthood of the Episcopal Church, and\u00a0Cornelia Parsons Thornburgh \u201980, the first female chair of the Trinity College Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6393\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6393\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6393 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/Renita-Washington-220522_Commencement_006-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/Renita-Washington-220522_Commencement_006-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/Renita-Washington-220522_Commencement_006-500x334.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/Renita-Washington-220522_Commencement_006.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6393\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Student speaker Renita Washington \u201922<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Renita Washington \u201922, selected as the student speaker, noted the ways in which she and her classmates persevered during challenging times. \u201cIn the spring of our sophomore year, we were all hit hard by a global pandemic and conversations about racial inequity,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were all affected. But if I do say so myself, we persisted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In her charge to the graduates,\u00a0Trinity President Joanne Berger-Sweeney\u00a0encouraged the members of the Class of 2022 to use their voices and their education to empower others. \u201cThat is the essence of education,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just how you use education to make life better for yourself but how you will use it to make life better for others. This idea explains why we say that education is a public good: it\u2019s not simply what job you get; it\u2019s how society will be better because you got your education.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6395\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6395\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6395 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/220522_Commencement_197-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/220522_Commencement_197-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/220522_Commencement_197-500x334.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/220522_Commencement_197.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6395\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Salutatorian Nayantara Ghosh \u201922 and valedictorian Daniel Jacob Nesbitt \u201922<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Daniel Jacob Nesbitt, of Ohio, who earned a B.S., summa cum laude, in public policy and law and with honors in chemistry, was named valedictorian; Nayantara Ghosh, of India, who earned a B.A., summa cum laude, in political science and urban studies, in addition to a minor in religious studies, was named salutatorian.<\/p>\n<p>Following the awarding of degrees,\u00a0then-Trinity College Alumni Association\u00a0President Jamie Tracey Szal \u201906 welcomed the graduates into the community of Trinity alumni. \u201cYou may be departing campus, but you always will be among family,\u201d Szal said. \u201cWherever you land, the alumni\u201430,000 strong\u2014are there: ready, waiting, and eager to support you as you go out into the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For videos, photos, and more, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/commencement\/\">https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/commencement\/<\/a><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6397\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6397\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6397 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/Graduation-22-54-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/Graduation-22-54-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/Graduation-22-54-500x334.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/Graduation-22-54.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6397\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Celebrating graduates<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Accolades<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Trustee Award for Faculty Excellence<\/strong>: Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies Davarian Baldwin, Associate Professor of Legal and Policy Studies Adrienne Fulco<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trustee Award for Staff Excellence<\/strong>: Athletics Equipment Manager Sonia E. \u201cPenny\u201d Lawrence, Hillel Director Lisa P. Kassow<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trustee Award for Student Excellence<\/strong>: Alicia Maria Camuy \u201922, John D. Hayes Jr. \u201922<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Thomas Church Brownell Prize for Teaching Excellence<\/strong>: Brownell Professor of Philosophy\u00a0Dan E. Lloyd<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Dean Arthur H. Hughes Award for Achievement in Teaching<\/strong>: Assistant Professor of Religious Studies\u00a0Gabriel F. Hornung, Assistant Professor of Computer Science\u00a0Ewa Syta<\/p>\n<p>Photos by Nick Caito and Ginny Kemp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAim for building bridges instead of creating chasms,\u201d said painter and poet Raja Changez Sultan \u201972 to the graduates of the Trinity College Class of 2022 during his Commencement address on Sunday, May 22. \u201cThe diversity that you find around the globe is our collective strength.\u201d A crowd gathered on the Main Quadrangle witnessed more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"parent":6379,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6375","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.5 (Yoast SEO v25.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Commencement 2022 - The Trinity Reporter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/fall-2022\/along-the-walk\/commencement-2022\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Commencement 2022\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cAim for building bridges instead of creating chasms,\u201d said painter and poet Raja Changez Sultan \u201972 to the graduates of the Trinity College Class of 2022 during his Commencement address on Sunday, May 22. \u201cThe diversity that you find around the globe is our collective strength.\u201d A crowd gathered on the Main Quadrangle witnessed more [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/fall-2022\/along-the-walk\/commencement-2022\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Trinity Reporter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/2026\/05\/220522_Commencement_240.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/fall-2022\/along-the-walk\/commencement-2022\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/fall-2022\/along-the-walk\/commencement-2022\/\",\"name\":\"Commencement 2022 - 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