MIDDLETOWN – Close to 900 students completed their academic degree or certificate requirements at SUNY Orange this year. Over 500 of them attended graduation ceremonies at the Middletown Campus on Thursday evening. Some 4,000 friends and relatives attended to celebrate the accomplishments of their loved ones.
“I believe what commences for you today is the ability to see that the world isn’t a big scary place, but rather a place full of opportunity,” said college President Dr. Kristine Young. “You now have an enhanced capacity to locate those opportunities, make sense of them, and take advantage of them, not only for yourself, but for those who are less fortunate than you are.”
Class of 2016 graduate Zachary Wesley-Krueger was joined by his grandfather at the commencement, Charles Cawein, a 1952 graduate and the first student to register for classes when the college opened in 1950.
Six graduates were presented with their degrees by family members –Wesley-Krueger; Mathew Wynkoop; Kimberly Rose Castaldo, by her mother, Ilene, a nursing professor; Ashley Mary Ten Eyck, by her mother, Lyla, a senior secretary in the Middletown campus library; Jonathan Lindau, by his mother Suzanne, a nursing professor; and Sarah Gordon, by her mother, Lucinda Fleming, a business professor.
Wesley-Krueger and his grandfather
First commencement for President Young
