Colorado College celebrated 15 graduates at its Winter Commencement on Sunday, Dec. 19, in Shove Memorial Chapel. The ceremony was part of CC’s 148th academic year.

CC President L. Song Richardson welcomed the students and bestowed their degrees upon them. It was the first CC Commencement for Richardson, who started at the college in July.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Florencia Rojo gave the Commencement Address, titled “Cultivating Hope: Community Care in Challenging Times,” and Chaplain Kate Holbrook gave both the invocation and benediction.

The senior class motto was “As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think,” a quote from novelist Toni Morrison, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize for Literature, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Members of the class demonstrated their commitment to Colorado College through their philanthropic senior class gift,  directing donations toward the Colorado College Mutual Aid Fund — a fund students created to support immediate needs such as housing and food insecurity facing their classmates.