STAFF REPORTS
news@allwnynews.com
ELMIRA — Elmira College’s Class of 2017 celebrated the Graduating Class Reception in Meier Hall on March 24. The annual celebration included presentations of the Outstanding Graduate Award, Alumnae and Alumni Rings, and alumni pins, as well as the announcement of Candlelight Speakers.
Those receiving honors included:
- Class of 2017 Candlelight Speaker: Thomas Bragg of Gasport
- Class of 2017 Candlelight Speaker: McKayla Sluga of Salamanca
Brandon Davis ’17, president of the Class of 2017, gave the class response. He addressed his classmates, “Look around at the diverse and strong individuals that have helped shape your experience at Elmira College. We can thank the institution for the vast opportunities it has provided us, and the education we sometimes take for granted, considering the thousands who are not as fortunate. So I thank Elmira College for bringing us together, for fostering an intimate community we only know as wonderful.”
Deanne Slater-Johnson, mother of Liz Johnson ’17, was named the Parent Candlelight Speaker.
The Alumni Association Board of Directors then presented alumni pins to the graduating class, followed by a champagne toast given by Alumni Association President, Jim Joerger ’93.
The Graduating Class Reception, followed by the “100 Days Dinner,” which welcomes the class into the ranks of the College’s alumni and the beginning of Commencement celebrations.
Elmira College is a private, coeducational, Phi Beta Kappa college founded in 1855, located in Elmira, New York. The College has an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 1,200 full-time mostly-residential students, and is the guardian of Quarry Farms where Mark Twain summered for decades and where he wrote many of his most iconic novels and is today a research center for visiting Twain scholars. The College has been ranked as a Best College in the Northeast by the Princeton Review and a Top Tier national liberal arts college by U.S. News & World Report, which also ranked Elmira College as a leading college, nationally, for student internships. The Philadelphia Inquirer cited the Elmira College campus as ‘picture postcard perfect.’
