Lindsey Wilson College’s Record Winter Commencement Ceremonies a Family Celebration
COLUMBIA, Ky. – The Lindsey Wilson College community celebrated its largest winter commencement class in the school’s 121-year history on Saturday, Dec. 7.
A total of 843 degrees were conferred at the two ceremonies held at Biggers Sports Center – 170 undergraduate and 673 graduate degrees. The morning ceremony included 11 doctoral degrees, the highest number presented at a single Lindsey Wilson commencement ceremony.
But the day was really more of a big family celebration.
As student speaker Kylie Jackson of Columbia told the morning commencement audience, “I can wholeheartedly say I have found a family at Lindsey Wilson College.”
Jackson, who graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in English and plans to attend law school next fall, told her fellow graduates and guests that Lindsey Wilson “is not just a place to learn, it’s a community that has cheered us on at every turn.”
Jackson said that “each experience has pushed us to grow ways we never thought were possible.”
“We have each experienced unforgettable moments,” said Jackson, who is also a graduate of Green County High School. “This small campus holds so much more than meets the eye … Each and every educational experience we’ve experienced as a Blue Raider has deeply enriched our view of the world.”
Jackson said at the crux of the Lindsey Wilson experience is an outstanding faculty, whose members extend education “far beyond the four walls of the classroom” and teach students how to “achieve the unimaginable.”
“Our faculty haven’t been just our professors – they are our mentors,” she said.
The same goes for Lindsey Wilson alumni, who inspired graduate Ramon Moon of Cincinnati, who was among winter commencement’s record doctoral class.
Thanks to a chance encounter with Leon Ellison, who was the first person to receive a Lindsey Wilson doctorate in 2018, Moon enrolled in Lindsey Wilson’s doctoral program in counselor education and supervision.
Moon was cheered on by his family when he received his Lindsey Wilson doctorate – wife, Carmen, son, Carson, and daughter, Sunny.
“I saw (Ellison’s) three degrees on the wall, and they all said from Lindsey Wilson College,” said Moon. “Ever since then, he’s had my back. He made sure I knew what I needed to know, I read what I needed to read, and he got me clinically prepared for this field that I’m in now.”
