Standing in the spot that had once been his childhood backyard, Skip Griffin issued a challenge to the Longwood University graduates sitting before him.
“As you go forward in life, I challenge you to be a lifelong learner,” he said. “The world requires you to never stop learning, never stop trying to understand your neighbors, never stop trying to understand the changes that are occurring, never stop trying to understand all of the peoples and the nations that make up this beautiful world.”
Over commencement weekend, May 17-18, Longwood awarded 1,181 degrees: 145 in Friday’s graduate ceremony and 1,026 in Saturday’s undergraduate ceremony.
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Twin sisters share valedictorian honors at Longwood’s 2019 Commencement
They may be identical twins, but they are far from the same person. One is an accomplished student-athlete on the Longwood women’s basketball team; the other is one of the most involved students on campus, a member of several organizations and community-based groups.
One place where they are the same, though, is in the classroom.
Kate and Kellen Spradlin became the first pair of identical twins to be awarded the Sally Hargrett Barksdale ’21 Prize for Academic Excellence at Longwood’s 2019 Undergraduate Commencement, an award given to the graduating senior with the highest grade-point average.
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Princeps, CHI member shares valedictorian honors at Longwood commencement
Zach Morgan ’19 knows what his two favorite moments of his Longwood career will be, and they both happened the spring semester of his senior year: the annual CHI bonfire, in which senior CHI members’ identities are divulged, and Princeps reveal.
The student-athlete and chemistry major is a member of both secret societies—an honor that sets him apart from most valedictorians at Longwood. Morgan was the third student who shared the Sally Barksdale Hargrett (1921) Award for Academic Excellence, given at commencement to the graduating senior with the highest grade-point average.
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Elwood Reveal: The story of one man behind the mask
It's a secret until graduation, when seniors reveal they've filled Elwood's shoes this whole time.