WCC Graduates Celebrated; Encouraged to Embrace Challenges with Gratitude and Hope
On the morning of Monday, May 24th, the forty-one members of Wyoming Catholic College’s Class of 2021 crossed the Lander Community and Convention Center’s stage to receive their diplomas, much to the satisfaction of assembled friends and family. The Commencement ceremony, which featured an address from Curtis Martin, Founder and CEO of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), was held later in the year than ever before—a necessary result of the College’s reshuffled calendar and the final symptom of the COVID pandemic’s disruptive impact on the Class of 2021.
Despite the unusual timing of the celebration and the unique challenges of the academic year it concluded, the day was marked by a powerful sense of gratitude and of hope—gratitude for what these forty-one young men and women had received during their time at Wyoming Catholic, and hope for what they would do in the future.
In his Senior Address, Anthony Jones (Crossville, TN) told his fellow graduates that “the past four years have left us very, very, blessed. Day in and day out, our professors tirelessly introduced us to the central authors of our intellectual inheritance.” He reminded them of the obligations that accompany such a gift— “We have stepped into this tradition and are now a living part of it.”—and encouraged them to embrace the example of St. Thérèse of Lisieux (his class’s patron saint): “A little flower does not put its light under a bushel or hide its gifts. It testifies to the reality of those gifts in the way it carries itself, both inside and out. And this is key. We must remember what we have received, and remember that, fundamentally, we have received it.”
Mr. Martin echoed these themes of gratitude and responsibility, telling the assembled students, professors, and family members that “We live in an age of crumbling culture and a fragile church; we are in desperate need of hope. And that hope is sitting there, before us.” He spoke to them of putting the gifts they received while in Lander to use in the wider world. “You have been given a tremendous gift,” he said, “to be able to think and to live and to understand that the pursuit of knowledge is not independent from the moral life or the spiritual life. And so, you will be better prepared than the vast majority of your peers to have an impact wherever you go.”
The Class of 2021
Maria Teresa Baron (Lander, WY)
Brianna Blanche Bell (Saint Charles, MO)
Kathryn Ann Boucher (Westminster, CA)
Benjamin William Bridge (Delafield, WI)
Clare Therese Campaña (Eagle, ID)
Christopher Michael Carter (Ann Arbor, MI)
Marieke Anne Hope Carter (Ann Arbor, MI)
Rinju Leslie Chenet (Lander, WY)
Kathleen Rose Cools (Lacey, WA)
Samuel Joseph Doran (Morrison, CO)
Anna Joy Cecilia Eby (Whitehouse, OH)
Raymond William Sutherland Engles (Fort Collins, CO)
Emily Anne Felsheim (La Crosse, WI)
Kirsten Marie Fontenot (Ville Platte, LA)
John Charles Gassner III (Stafford, VA)
Isaac Joseph Gibson (East Ryegate, VT)
John Henry Longinus Gleason (Waukesha, WI)
Robert Potter Gleason (Charlotte, NC)
Amanda Jo Johnson (Zimmerman, MN)
Anthony Lee Jones (Crossville, TN)
Grace Kathryn Kirwan (Elkhorn, NE)
Grace Ann Klein (Hermiston, OR)
Julia Kathleen Kuplack (Post Falls, ID)
Theresa Louise Mary Magdalene Liebert (Westby, WI)
Noah Michael Maslak (Cody, WY)
Joseph Little Tree Maxwell (Centralia, WA)
Kevin James Milligan (Bow, NH)
Seaghan Thomas Nolan (Lubbock, TX)
Alexander James Shaw Stewart Olar (Pekin, IL)
Audrey Christine Patton (Seattle, WA)
Joseph Neil Phillipps (Newtown, PA)
Jane Rosalyn Quispe (Highlands Ranch, CO)
Sophia Anne Maria Russell (Ann Arbor, MI)
Johanna Marie Josepha Schuh (La Farge, WI)
Carlos Santiago Solis (Folsom, CA)
Peter Simeon Tardiff (Coventry, RI)
John Paul Terneus (Bellevue, NE)
Thomas Paul Tyznik (Winfield, IL)
Eastlyn Blessing Ullmann (Las Cruces, NM)
Juliette Margaret Weslow (Green Bay, WI)
Joseph Lawrence White (Rathdrum, ID)