Colby-Sawyer College conferred 268 degrees at its 187th Commencement Saturday, May 10, including 11 to the institution’s first doctoral candidates.  

College Interim President Laura A. Sykes ’98 called the awarding of doctoral degrees a milestone — for both the Doctor of Nursing Practice cohort and the institution founded in 1837. Colby-Sawyer also awarded 42 master’s degrees, 202 bachelor’s degrees and 13 associate degrees to the Class of 2025 inside the Dan and Kathleen Hogan Sports Center.  

Sykes told the graduates that the Colby-Sawyer community would continue to cheer for and support them long after they marched across the stage to receive their diplomas. “We will always be interested in knowing where your journey takes you from this launch pad,” she said. “Colby-Sawyer will always be your home.”  

For decades, Colby-Sawyer has been home for Sykes — as an undergraduate student, staff member, alumna, award-winning faculty member, administrator, and interim president. Her 31-year teaching and administrative career will conclude May 31.  

While Sykes initially retired two years ago from her position as academic vice president and dean of faculty, she returned as interim president while the college underwent a national search for president.   

That search yielded Dr. Dean McCurdy, who most recently was provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana. He will begin his tenure as Colby-Sawyer’s 10th president on June 1.  

During the 90-minute morning ceremony, Colby-Sawyer recognized faculty and students for academic excellence, and community members for outstanding contributions to the college, state and beyond. 

Colby-Sawyer bestowed attorney and former U.S. Congresswoman Ann McLane Kuster with an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree for her exceptional leadership, dedication to public service and commitment to improving the lives of New Hampshire families.  

The college also presented Pamela Stanley Bright ’61, a dedicated alumna and former member of Colby-Sawyer's Board of Trustees, with its highest honor, the Susan Colgate Cleveland Medal for Distinguished Service.  

Assistant Professor David Lutz, winner of the Jack Jensen Award for Excellence in Teaching, offered advice to graduates about navigating life.  

Lutz, who teaches courses in environmental science, said research requires scientists to always be sampling, or ABS, because comprehending changes in the natural world requires multiple tests in multiple situations.

"The more we observe,” he said, “the better we understand.”

The ABS framework, Lutz said, can also be applied to life in general. He encouraged the Class of 2025 to always be sympathetic, always be selfless and always be savoring.  

His final suggestion: Always be sailing. Lutz’s maternal grandmother gave him similar advice when he was graduating high school. She was a Hungarian immigrant who survived the Holocaust and the Hungarian Revolution, then moved to New York City where she worked on the docks.   

She wrote on Lutz’s graduation card: “Be a good sailor on the sea of life. A sailor who knows his destination, keeps his direction, and does not let himself be swayed away by winds and waves.”  

Destiny Cruz ’25, a forensic psychology major and business and legal studies minor from Fall River, Massachusetts, was presented with the Colby-Sawyer Award.

Faculty members selected her because of her personal dignity, intellectual growth, contribution to campus life and constructive influence on other students.

Cruz will return to Colby-Sawyer in the fall to earn an MBA and take part in a postgraduate fellowship with Global Lawyers for Refugees. She’ll also be applying to law schools.  

Joshua Warner earned the David H. Winton Baccalaureate Award for ranking highest in scholarship in the Class of 2025.

The biology major and chemistry minor from Barrington, New Hampshire, graduated in three years with a 4.0 grade-point average.

He is applying to dental schools.  

Student speaker Brian Cal-Mallo ’25 said in his Commencement address that he felt uncertain when he arrived in New London as a first-generation college student in 2021.

“I could not shake the thought, ‘Am I really supposed to be here?’ I was stepping into unfamiliar territory, unsure of what the next four years would bring,” said the graphic design major and business minor from Manchester, New Hampshire.  

But during the ensuing days, weeks and years, Cal-Mallo said Colby-Sawyer gave him and his peers an education and a purpose.

“Over the last four years, we have learned that what once seemed impossible has become our reality,” said Cal-Mallo, who is pursuing an MBA at the college. 

“We are now stepping into a world that needs not just leaders, but listeners. It needs changemakers who are ready to make a difference. Let us be the leaders, innovators and changemakers that Colby-Sawyer has prepared us to be.”  

As the ceremony concluded, graduates walked through an honor corridor of cheering trustees, faculty and staff.  

More information about the ceremony and award recipients, as well as the Commencement video, are on the Commencement website. Additional photographs will be posted soon.