Wyoming Catholic College’s Class of 2025 Told “The World Needs You!”

Video of this year’s festivities can be found HERE or at the bottom of this news story.

On Monday, May 19th, Wyoming Catholic College held its 15th Commencement Exercises in recognition of the fifty young men and women of the Class of 2025, the largest graduating class in the College’s history. Held in the Lander Community and Convention Center before an audience of well over 600, the ceremony was the perfect conclusion to their four-year adventure, filled with gratitude for their time in Lander, and looking forward to the adventure that lies ahead.

This year’s Senior Address was delivered by Kolya Sidloski, of Saskatoon, Canada, began his remarks to his classmates by acknowledging the great opportunity they had  all been given: “I dare not even try to say what a gift it has been for me to share—to really share!—these past four years with you.” Sidloski told his fellow graduates that “if these past four years have done anything for us at all, one must hope that they have done this: that they have drawn us from the isolation and narcissism of our self-interest to the beginning of the bond of perfection which constitutes us as beings in communion, learning what it means to really share life. Classmates and friends,” he exhorted them, “don’t stop sharing life!  This is our task: to carry on that movement into a richer sharing through the gift of our very selves. We are the secret radicals, as John Senior says, who subvert the secular order not by terrorism, but by sacrifice.”

Sidloski’s remarks were followed by a rousing address from this year’s Commencement Speaker, Chris Stefanick.  An internationally acclaimed Catholic author, speaker, and evangelist, Stefanick reminded the fifty young men and women of the Class of 2025 of the great blessings they’d received through their education, and offered his advice and encouragement in confronting the challenges that lay ahead. “What these students just went through is what Jesus called all of us to when He started His ministry,” he said. “Metanoia. Change your mind. Change your thinking. Change how you see and approach absolutely everything. That’s what these students just did and that is amazing and that is beautiful. The bad news is you’re about to re-enter a world that doesn’t just disagree with you about certain things, but that sees life in an entirely different way.”

“[There are] things that you’ve done naturally here that will very soon become a fight,” he told them. “Hold these things in your life so that you can live with the joy of St. Paul in prison and be the light that this world desperately needs. This is a battle you can’t afford to lose.” He closed his exhortation with some final words of encouragement: “The city walls have fallen and the world needs you. And the Church needs what you have. …The joy of the Lord must be your strength!”

After the speeches, the ceremony continued with the conferral of the degrees. Students crossed the stage as their name was announced, shook President Washut’s hand, and received their diploma, encased in a blue cover bearing the College’s crest. Then, after the graduates were presented to uproarious applause, the festivities concluded with the singing of the College Alma Mater before the newly-minted graduates processed out, each wearing the distinctive black Stetson cowboy hat and hatpin they had received earlier that weekend.

The Class of 2025:
Maria Teresa Benedicta Amorose (Mesa, AZ)
Clara Rose Anderson (Moline, KS)
Clare Marie Bagdazian (Santa Paula, CA)
Jacob Andrew Baska (Mesa, AZ)
Elizabeth Muriel Beardslee (Peru, NE)

Ethan Fletcher Boord (Olive Branch, MS)
Veronica Clare Britt (Carrollton, TX)
Dominic Joseph Brown (Milan, MI)
Maria Concetta Camardo (Harvard, MA)
Marie Helen Louise Carstens (Soldiers Grove, WI)

Sean Alexander Cartier (Denver, CO)
Luca Joseph Castronova (Bloomington, IN)
Luke Michael Christopherson (Charlotte, NC)
Anne Catherine Cocker (Rancho Cordova, CA)
Edward Joseph Collins (Santa Paula, CA)

Joseph Donald Collins (Ojai, CA)
Ryan Wesley Craver (Pfafftown, NC)
Hope Victoria Francine Crawford-Guarnera (Colorado Springs, CO)
Joseph Peter D’Antonio (Fredericksburg, VA)
Jerome Emmanuel Daly (Vashon, WA)

Anna Lynn Daskiewicz (Omaha, NE)
Mary Alice DeSilva (Cranston, RI)
Elizabeth Blair Eckel (Alexandria, VA)
Grace Rebekah Hamilton (Granite Canon, WY)
Benjamin Alexander Haywood (Indianapolis, IN)

Hayley Marie Heidt (Cumming, GA)
Ellen Marie Hesselbrock (Louisville, KY)
Jacob Pierre Landry (Westminster, MD)
Lathan Alexander Layfield (New Braunfels, TX)
Elijah Michael Lee (Independence, MO)

Aidan Xavier Luzarraga (Ave Maria, FL)
Frank Magongwa (Lilongwe, Malawi)
Maria Francesca Mortensen (Lander, WY)
Nyra Juliana Ortiz (Penfield NY)
Cecilia Anne Pautler (Birmingham, AL)

Hayden Daniel Raines (Campobello, SC)
Clara Rose Ramsay (Austin, TX)
John William Renouard (Butte, MT)
August John Seeber (Virginia, MN)
Benjamin Francis Seeley (Sykesville, MD)

Grace Emma Sherman (Salt Lake City, UT)
Kolya Alexander Sidloski (Saskatoon, SK, Canada)
Catherine Jacinta Stancliffe (Kansas City, MO)
Anna Maria Joan Tabeling (Superior Township, MI)
Grace Anne Athanasius Tabeling (Superior Township, MI)

Abraham Francis Tardiff (Coventry, RI)
Brigid Katherine Van Hecke (Hartland, WI)
Matthew Isaiah Vidimos (Bedford, TX)
Everest James Wagner (Indianapolis, IN)
Bren Erin Walsh (Noblesville, IN)