Middlebury Celebrates the Class of 2025

In a ceremony that included long-held traditions, speeches, music, and the conferral of honorary degrees, the graduates were celebrated for their accomplishments including national fellowships and scholarships, academic honors, athletic and artistic achievements and community engagement.

Bagpiper Timothy Cummings opened the ceremony by leading the class from Old Chapel to the Commencement grounds, where the Constitution Brass Quintet played the processional. In keeping with tradition, the students paused before entering the seating area, formed a gauntlet and applauded as the faculty walked through.

Student Government Association President Brandon Straker, a political science major from Washington, D.C., delivered the student address. He noted that he was the first in his family to attend college and had an unlikely journey to Middlebury. After graduating from high school at the height of the pandemic, he found himself teaching seventh-grade math in Texas, never imagining college was a possibility.

Then he met Jason Mims, founder of the Mims Institute, which supports underrepresented students preparing for top colleges. Mims became an important mentor for Straker, inspiring him to apply to Middlebury, a move that changed the course of his life. Mims traveled from Texas to attend Sunday’s ceremony.

“Each one of us has a story to tell—a story about how someone in our life, whether a parent, or mentor, teacher, or coach pushed us on our way to persevere,” said Straker. “I have come to learn that the best of our accomplishments is not ever done in isolation. We do not have these accomplishments alone.”

Straker said he will return to his old school in Washington, D.C., next week as a volunteer for Teach for America, hoping to inspire a new generation of future Middlebury students.

Investment executive and philanthropist Chuck Davis gave the Commencement address and, along with his wife, Marna, received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. The founder and chairman of Stone Point Capital, Davis offered the class six points of advice drawn from his life experience and 50-year career. He included these tips and more in a website he’s building—a “MiddKit”—that he hopes will serve as a helpful resource for the class.

“It is wonderful what you have accomplished,” Davis told the graduates. “I never made it to the seat you are sitting in now. Would you mind if I see what it feels like?” With that, Davis hopped off the stage, took an empty seat, and sat with the graduates for a few seconds before returning to the podium. He explained that he had attended Middlebury, where he struggled academically, for only two years before transferring to the University of Vermont. He later used those struggles as motivation when he launched his career on Wall Street.

Davis reminded graduates facing a challenging world not to fear failure, but rather to expect and embrace it. The native Vermonter said failure was something he “knew quite a bit about,” and that failure can often be more important to personal development than success. “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone,” said Davis.

Chuck and Marna Davis are cofounders and co-chairs of the Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation, an organization focused on a rare liver cancer that primarily occurs in adolescents and young adults. The foundation carries on the legacy of their son, Tucker, one of the foundation’s cofounders, who died of fibrolamellar cancer at age 28. The Davises are also cofounders of the Chuck and Marna Davis Foundation—a Vermont-focused foundation that supports numerous educational and other worthy causes.

Middlebury awarded honorary degrees to Heather McGhee and Dario Robleto. Robleto is an American artist, researcher, writer, and filmmaker whose work cultivates rigorous, mutually transformative interactions between the arts, humanities, and sciences. McGhee is a nationally known author, commentator, and policy expert whose book The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together is a New York Times best seller.

Early in the ceremony, Interim President Steve Snyder acknowledged student and faculty plans to protest and affirmed the College’s commitment to free expression. As Snyder spoke, a small group of students and faculty stood up and left the ceremony objecting in part to budget actions affecting faculty and staff retirement benefits. They returned later for the conferral of degrees.

As they crossed the stage to receive their diplomas, graduates received replicas of Gamaliel Painter’s cane, presented by Hannah Burnett ’10, president of the Middlebury Alumni Association.

Commencement was the culmination of a busy weekend of events. On Saturday morning, following a breakfast for graduates and their guests, 64 students were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the country’s oldest honor society. Later in the morning, the College celebrated its Posse scholars with a reception at McCullough Student Center. On Saturday afternoon, graduates and their families attended the baccalaureate service at Middlebury Chapel where Dean of Spiritual and Religious Life Mark Orton delivered the address.