Hartwick College celebrates commencement
According to a news release from the college, Chelsea Kotey, a 2025 graduate, a biochemistry major and president of the Student Government Association, "offered a powerful reminder that life's unexpected turns often lead to the most meaningful destinations."
"Let's embrace uncertainty; after all, uncertainty defines the human experience," Kotey said. "Remember that the path forward rarely unfolds exactly as planned, and that's okay. ... some of life's most gratifying opportunities arise from what we discover while taking unexpected detours. We newly face the unknown; we've learned at Hartwick to lean into what's unfamiliar with curiosity rather than with fear."
Several recognitions were presented along with degrees.
Roselyn DuMerville was awarded the Abraham L. Kellogg Oratorical Prize for her speech, "Guided by Henry," which she originally delivered during the college's honors convocation April 30.
Laurel Bongiorno, vice president for academic affairs and provost, presented the Margaret B. Bunn Award for Outstanding Teaching to Associate Professor of Psychology and Department Chair William Kowalczyk, who was also named the 2025 Teacher-Scholar during the honors convocation.
Elizabeth "Betty" Powell, a 1982 Hartwick graduate, received the President's Medal for Extraordinary and Exemplary Loyalty to the College. Powell has served in Hartwick's Department of Athletics since 1969 and was recently honored for 55 years of service at the Quinquennial Awards Celebration, the release stated.
Patricia Spears Jones, an award-winning poet, educator and cultural activist; and Richard Ekman, a nationally recognized leader in higher education, received honorary degrees and served as commencement speakers.
Jones encouraged graduates to honor their accomplishments and shape their future with intention.
"Your degree is a testament to your discipline, passion, interests and determination," Jones said. "You are now at that moment where your future and how you make your life become a testament to your character, your values, your desires."
Ekman encouraged graduates to move forward with confidence.
"No matter what field you majored in, you have acquired skills, and knowledge and values that go well beyond your major," he said. "You can and should be bold as you make choices over the next few years about your next steps in life. Steps about where you will work, where you will live, what sort of spouse or parent you will be and what leadership roles as citizen and community member you're willing to take on. You're very likely to succeed in life's many dimensions because you've already obtained during the past few years the excellent foundation that Hartwick has given to you."
Public health major Amanda Wilbur reflected on the friendships she formed during her time at Hartwick.
"When I came here, I never thought I would make such lifelong friends — but when I go to the Rockefeller School of Public Affairs and Policy, I'll be rooming with someone I met here."
For some, Hartwick's natural spaces also "played a central role in life balance," the release stated. Economics and global studies major Robert Noury spoke of one of the college's assets.
"I got the opportunity to live at Pine Lake, and every student should take the opportunity to get out there," he said. "Sitting around the fire or playing board games, it was just so inspiring being in the woods with my friends."
As the ceremony drew to a close, President Jim Mullen delivered a farewell to the Class of 2025.
"You are remarkable young people. I know the world will be better because of you," he said. "So, my final thank you is deeply personal — it is for what you have meant to this place and what you have meant to me. I am forever grateful to each of you and I love you very much."
Among the Class of 2025 were 40 summa cum laude, 41 magna cum laude, and 52 cum laude graduates. The class also included 111 departmental distinctions, 22 college honors students, 21 who completed their degrees in three years, and 27 legacy students, according to the release.
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New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
How Greece and Germany helped make archeology modern
Watching an American icon like Indiana Jones battle Nazis in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' it's hard to believe that it was actually a German cultural institute which played a pivotal role in transforming reckless Jones-style treasure hunting into the modern science of archaeology we know today. That institute, the German Archaeological Institute at Athens (DAI Athens), has just completed the year-long celebration of its 150th anniversary — just as Greece welcomes record numbers of summer tourists to marvel at the archaeological wonders the institute helped unearth. Widely regarded as one of the birthplaces of modern archaeological science, the DAI pioneered the transition from indiscriminate digging at archaeological sites to the systematic excavation and meticulous study that continues to inspire researchers and amateur archaeology buffs across the globe. Advertisement 11 Archaeological Site of Olympia in Greece, excavated by the Germans in 1875 in what is regarded as the first 'dig' to employ the rigorous academic and scientific practices now used in archeology across the globe. dudlajzov – 11 The ruins of Ancient Olympia. elgreko – 11 The headquarters of the DAI Athens, the German-run archeological institute which helped establish modern archeology. DAI Athens, Photographer H. Birk Until the mid-19th century, archeology was often more about treasure hunting and indiscriminate looting than detailed research and science. Advertisement Take Lord Elgin's controversial removal of sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens, between 1801 and 1812. Although Elgin claimed to have obtained permission from Ottoman authorities — a claim recently refuted by the Turkish government — his sale of the sculptures to the British Museum remains a major cultural and diplomatic dispute between Greece and Britain. Many view Elgin's deeds as one of the most notorious colonial-era lootings, alongside famous antiquities brought to museums around the world like the Rosetta Stone. 11 'Greece's allure was such that many countries fought to establish archaeological institutes at the time. Today, there are 20 foreign institutes based in Athens,' says DAI Director Katja Sporn. DAI Athens, Photographer N. Chrisikakis Advertisement Even Luigi Palma di Cesnola, the first director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, was accused of looting classical treasures from Cyprus, where he served as US Consul General in the mid-1860s. Many of the artifacts di Cesnola was said to have plundered were sold, ironically, to the Met itself. During this period, Greece, newly independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1830, was rich in history but in economic decline owing to decades of war. But it was finally possible for the philhellenists (lovers of Greek culture) to travel to Greece and study its ancient remains. In the later part of the 19th century, Greece's ancient ruins also became magnets for the era's great expansionist powers like the United Kingdom and France. Their ultimate goal? Securing rights to excavate Greece's most coveted archaeological sites while bolstering diplomatic ties through what we now call 'cultural diplomacy.' 11 Luigi Palma Di Cesnola, the first director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, who was accused of looting ancient relics from Cyprus. Getty Images Advertisement Germany was just one of the many countries aspiring to gain excavation rights in Greece. 'The oldest foreign archaeological institute in Athens is the French School of Athens, founded in 1846,' explains Katja Sporn, director of the DAI Athens. 'But Greece's allure was such that many countries fought to establish archaeological institutes at the time. Today, there are 20 foreign institutes based in Athens.' The DAI Athens was founded in 1874, just three years after German unification, during a period of growing German nationalism. Part of the German Archaeological Institute based in Berlin, the DAI Athens' creation reflected the importance of Greek history to Kaiser Wilhelm I and the close political ties between Germany and Greece, whose first king, Otto, hailed from a Bavarian royal family. Many Germans at the time saw parallels between Greece's struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire and their own aspirations for national unification. In the same year the DAI Athens was founded, Sporn explains, the 'DAI became subordinate to Germany's Foreign Office 'as a permanent base for internationally active research.' 11 While the Germans were successful in securing and excavating Olympia, their French institutional counterparts were able to excavate Delphi (above). Getty Images Today, the DAI Athens is housed in a neoclassical building in downtown Athens where an exhibition for its 150th anniversary showcases its storied history. Among the figures featured is Heinrich Schliemann, an 'amateur' archaeologist and businessman who promoted archaeology to a wider public by his emblematic excavations in Troy and Mycenae. The figure who truly transformed archaeology was the institute's fourth director, Wilhelm Dörpfeld, who arrived at the DAI Athens in 1887. An architect trained at the excavations in Olympia, Dörpfeld pioneered stratigraphic excavation and both archaeological and architectural documentation methods. These revolutionized the field by allowing archaeologists to piece together detailed site histories while preserving them for future study. 'Dörpfeld's work was a turning point,' says Sporn. 'Archaeologists then worked methodically rather than destructively.' Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan, the Doreen C. Spritzer Director of Archives at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA), agrees. 'Dörpfeld's techniques were taught to archaeologists from Germany, Britain, France and the United States, who then applied and passed them on worldwide,' she says. Advertisement 11 A map of where the discoveries were made. Toni Misthos/NY Post Design This shift — from looting the ancient world to rigorous excavation and research — became the gold standard, paving the way for discoveries such as the tomb of King Tutankhamen by Howard Carter in 1922 and inspiring the swashbuckling tales of Indiana Jones. Some 150 years ago, in 1875, the German Kaiserreich began excavating the ancient sanctuary of Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games — and the place from which the Olympic torch is now lit 100 days before the start of the modern Olympics every four years. Olympia wasn't just another dig; it was governed by a bilateral treaty between Greece and Germany, setting unprecedented levels of oversight for excavation and preservation. Funded by the German government and backed by King George I of Greece, the dig benefited from both financial investment and diplomatic backing. Advertisement 11 Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan, the Doreen C. Spritzer Director of Archives at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. American School of Classical Studies at Athens/Facebook 'Olympia remains one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece,' says Sporn. The excavation uncovered iconic treasures like sculptures from the Temple of Zeus and the statue of Hermes by Praxiteles, but mainly the actual buildings and places where the famous Olympic games were held in antiquity. Yet the dig — partially overseen by Dörpfeld before he led the DAI — is not only important for what it found, but how it was conducted. 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Archive of the City of Wuppertal, photographer anonymous Crucially, the collaboration with the Greek state ensured that artifacts remained in Greece rather than being shipped off to a museum or private collection abroad, as was common practice at the time. This led to the creation of a dedicated museum at Olympia financed by a Greek patron as early as 1886 — the first on-site museum in the Mediterranean — where the site's most important finds could be studied and displayed in their original cultural context. Today, museums aligned with excavation sites have become common across the globe. Ultimately, the dig established 'responsible excavation' standards and early conservation techniques that remain in practice to this day. Back then, Olympia's success sparked fierce competition among nations vying for other important Greek sites. 'A rivalry developed between Germany, France and the United States over the most significant excavations,' says Vogeikoff-Brogan. Advertisement They became a battle for prestige among great powers, fueling political alliances between Greece and other countries. For the first time, economic considerations, like trade, would be factored in by Greece to determine who would get the rights to dig the most coveted archaeological sites. Archaeology became an expression not just of Greek national culture — but its newly emerging political might. 11 German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier speaking at the 150th Anniversary celebrations of the DAI Athens. Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung/ Guido Bergmann The French secured Delphi, aided by trade negotiations involving, of all things, Zante currants, while the Americans started excavations in Corinth and eventually the Agora in Athens, leveraging political alliances and personal relationships. 'Social capital and political connections were just as important as archaeological merit in these decisions,' Vogeikoff-Brogan adds. The positive relationship between the Greek state, its people and the DAI Athens faced a severe setback during WWII. The institute's ties to Nazi Germany through its director being leader of the German Nazi party in Greece deeply damaged its standing in the country — underscoring the entanglement between DAI Athens and Germany's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 'After WWII, it took time for the DAI Athens to regain the trust of the Greek community and reopen,' Sporn explains. The war left lasting scars, and Greeks remained wary of German institutions due to the atrocities committed during the occupation. Meanwhile, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) gained prominence in Greece by deliberately distancing itself from politics, establishing itself as another of Greece's most prominent foreign archaeological and historical education and research institutes. 11 Otto, the first King of Greece, who ruled the nation after its independence from the Ottoman Empire and helped establish Greece as an archeological the DAI Athens has long embraced modernity, digitizing its vast archives for global access and integrating new technologies into its research, particularly in the context of past human-nature relations, ancient land use and climate change. Like all Greek foreign archeological institutions, the DAI works in close collaboration with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. And by studying how ancient communities adapted to environmental shifts, the institute aims to offer insights into resilience strategies relevant today. 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Hamilton Spectator
5 days ago
- Hamilton Spectator
‘Job has to get done': New Hillsdale infrastructure outweighs construction concerns
For some folks living on Mill Street in Hillsdale, the long-term benefit of having a quality road with proper drainage and walkable sidewalks will outweigh the short-term pain of construction this summer. Linda Bodrug lives in the eye of the construction zone, a couple of doors west of Highway 93. Tuesday morning she was out in her driveway vacuuming her vehicle as heavy duty construction equipment dug up the road in front of her house and dump trucks hauled away load after load of the former road's base, creating a dust cloud that eventually dispersed, leaving a film of grit on almost everything in the area. 'This is going to be OK,' she said with a smile and a laugh. 'We live in a small village and we love it. We're gonna have a new road, brand new sidewalks, updated and better ditches. 'Hopefully, when it's all paved we'll get some speed bumps,' she added. While Bodrug admits getting in and out of her driveway has been, and will continue to be, a bit difficult, she'll deal with it because the end result will be far superior to what's been in place for the nine years she's lived in the village. She's grateful to see the township is repairing the entire infrastructure and not just the road. She pointed out the current sidewalks have sections missing and what's left isn't in great shape. 'The sidewalks are in big need of repair,' she said. 'Let's face it — there's little kids with scooters and people with mobility issues, so it needs to be done right. 'I hear it will take six months but it's going to be fine,' she added. Mill Street West, from Highway 93 to Old Penetanguishene Road, has been in deteriorating condition for quite some time, exhibiting signs of alligator and block cracking — issues that indicate structural failure and asphalt shrinkage due to temperature changes and aging of the asphalt binder, respectively. 'These cracks are severe and necessitate full-depth asphalt removal, along with repairs to the granular subsurface,' Amanda Jones, Springwater Township's capital engineering technologist, wrote in her report to council on May 7, when it was recommended the contract for the work be awarded to Four Brothers Construction Corporation, the lowest compliant bidder, in the amount of $2,448,764.82, including HST recoveries, provisional items and a 10 per cent contingency. Township council had allocated a budget of $3,786,000 for the work. 'Additionally, Mill Street has a long, gradual slope leading down to Highway 93, which causes significant erosion of the granular edge along the asphalt during heavy rain events,' Jones said. 'This erosion results in sediment being washed into the ditches, leading to overflow.' To address the issues, Jones wrote, the township will introduce a new storm drainage system featuring a bioswale — a shallow, vegetated channel designed to manage stormwater runoff by slowing its flow, filtering out pollutants, and allowing it to soak into the ground. New curbs and gutters will be installed along both sides of the road to direct stormwater into the new drainage system. 'This road will be urbanized to match the standards of Mill Street East, providing safer passage for students and parents travelling to the public school from Mill Street West,' Jones wrote in her report. 'The improvements will also give the area a more modern appearance, in line with the previous urbanization of Mill Street East.' Renowned sculptor Marlene Hilton Moore lives a couple of doors down from Bodrug and, like her neighbour, she's dealing with the construction in a positive manner. She knew it was coming — the township left information back in May with residents advising them of the impending construction — and even though she lost a massive 150-year-old maple tree that was partially on her property, she's good with the work and the minor disruptions it's going to cause. 'It's an annoyance but who cares?' Hilton Moore said. 'The job has to get done.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Yahoo
Linn Ann Griffin, co-owner at Strong & Jones Funeral Home, passes
Linn Ann Jones Griffin — longtime managing co-owner of Strong & Jones, the oldest Black-owned funeral home in Tallahassee — died Tuesday morning. She was 82. Jones Griffin — who was named one of "25 Women You Need to Know" in the Tallahassee Democrat's annual showcase of extraordinary women — was a fixture in the Tallahassee community. She was known for her care of grieving families and lived by a motto: "Let your light so shine that men shall see your good work that glorifies our Father which is in Heaven." Gary Goodwin, a friend and Sunday School teacher of the Patricia Proctor Bible Class 2 at Bethel AME Church, had nothing but kind words to say about the woman he said exhibited qualities that he wants to embody himself. He said Jones Griffin was a woman of faith who was dependable, reliable, generous and thoughtful. "She's really mothering and her compassion extends beyond the church as well," Goodwin said of Jones Griffin who faithfully attended his class. "I would say her compassion represents a good Christian woman and what a good Christian should be." Jones Griffin, who was born in Bainbridge, Georgia, graduated from Allen High School in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1965 she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bethune-Cookman College and a Master of Education degree from Florida A&M University, a year later. She earned a Master of Library Science degree from Florida State University in 1977. She received a diploma in Funeral Services from Gupton-Jones College of Mortuary Services in 1981, according to her bio. Since that time, Jones Griffin has worked as a licensed funeral director and embalmer at Strong & Jones Funeral Home, Inc. According to the funeral home's website, Thomas Strong and his wife, Mamie Johnson Simmons Strong, met a "young funeral director in business in Quincy, Florida, named Elbert W. Jones." Strong and Jones became friends and would sometime assist each other with funerals. In 1947, Strong's sudden death left his wife to continue the business and she turned to Jones to serve as the funeral director. For a short stint, the business was named the Elbert W. Jones Funeral Home. In addition to her work at the funeral home, Jones Griffin also founded the Florida District V Ladies Auxiliary within the State of Florida Morticians Association. In memory of her mother, Inez Augusta Stevens Jones, a founder of the Strong & Jones Funeral Home, Inc. Jones Griffin supported an annual scholarship to a woman seeking a career in mortuary science — a field often dominated by men — in an effort to promote more gender diversity. Jones Griffin is survived by three sons: Thomas J. 'Tommy' Griffin, Jr., Elbert J. Griffin and Alfred S. Griffin, three grandsons, Thomas J. Griffin III, Tyler J. Griffin and Tristian Griffin and one granddaughter, Aliyah A. Griffin. The viewing will be from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, June 29, at Strong & Jones Funeral Home, 629 W. Brevard St. The funeral service will be at noon June 30 at Bethel AME Church, 501 W. Orange Ave., with burial at Southside Cemetery, 3484 Capital Circle SW, Tallahassee. Contact Economic Development Reporter TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@ and follow @TaMarynWaters on X. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Linn Ann Griffin, co-owner at Strong & Jones Funeral Home, passes
