Students graduate from Bates College

LEWISTON — Bates College graduated 437 students from 36 U.S. states and 19 countries on May 26.

Katherine Buetens of Orono graduated Magna Cum Laude with a major in biology and a minor in dance.

Buetens received the Dana Scholar Award, the highest honor Bates bestows on students in their first year. Buetens graduates a member of Phi Beta Kappa, an organization recognized as conferring the highest undergraduate academic honors and as the oldest Greek letter society in the United States.

Leah Ruck of Orono graduated Magna Cum Laude with a major in philosophy and a minor in German.

Ruck graduates as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, an organization recognized as conferring the highest undergraduate academic honors and as the oldest Greek letter society in the United States.

Bates College graduated students from 36 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and 19 countries, with 437 members of the Class of 2024 accepting congratulations and diplomas from President Garry W. Jenkins.

It was the first Commencement for Garry Jenkins, who took the helm at Bates on July 1, 2023. He noted how the graduating class’ time at Bates has been bookended by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the horrific shooting in Lewiston Oct. 25, 2023. “The Bates Class of 2024 has been tested, and they have persevered,” Jenkins said. “They have taken on everything that has come their way and they also have thought deeply about their personal relationships to local, national, and global events. And in so doing, they have found joy and strength in one another, in connections, in relationships.”

“Lean into this grit,” Jenkins told the Bates Class of 2024. “This resolve and resiliency you’ve developed. Practice and further cultivate your ability and stamina to take on challenges as you encounter them, to adjust to changed circumstances, to make the best of less-than-ideal situations, to regroup when you are knocked off your planned course.”

The Commencement speaker was Mary Louise Kelly, the host of NPR’s evening news program “All Things Considered”, who received an honorary doctor of letters. The two other honorands were poet Richard Blanco, who received a doctor of letters, and President Emerita Clayton Spencer, who served as president of Bates from 2012 until June 30, 2023 and received a doctor of humane letters degree.

Located in Lewiston, Bates is internationally recognized as a leading liberal arts college, attracting 1,800 students from across the U.S. and around the world. Since 1855, Bates has been dedicated to educating the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community. Committed to opportunity and excellence, Bates has always admitted students without regard to gender, race, religion, or national origin. Cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action, Bates prepares leaders sustained by a love of learning and zeal for responsible stewardship of the wider world.