Cam Brown of Pleasant Valley graduates from Bates College
LEWISTON, ME (08/31/2022)– Cam Brown of Pleasant Valley, N.Y., graduated after majoring in politics at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Brown, the son of Christopher B. Brown and Natasha J. Brown, is a 2018 graduate of Poughkeepsie Day School..
Bates College graduated 477 students from 39 U.S. states and 40 nations on May 29, 2022.
The college’s 156th commencement featured introductory remarks by President Clayton Spencer, who complimented the class of 2022 on the “broadened perspective, early wisdom, and deepened empathy” they developed through the pandemic. “It would be easy to focus on what you may have missed in your college experience,” Spencer said. “I urge you, however, to think about what you have gained,” the ability to “move through the world more consciously and intentionally than a typical graduating senior.”
There were four recipients of honorary degrees: Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and featured speaker; nationally recognized biotech CEO Michael Bonney ’80; poet and teacher Nikki Giovanni; and the Rev. Becca Stevens, an author and social entrepreneur.
Teresa Chico ’22 gave the senior speech, where she used a plant analogy to describe her growth at Bates as a first-generation college student, saying that her “dramatic” Chinese money plant taught her that she “had to learn to believe in myself, but I also had to learn that it was okay to ask for help. Like the Chinese money plant, I had days where I was drooping, feeling defeated. But it was on those hard days that my professors watered me with their knowledge and support.”
Though we have been delayed in sharing this news, please know that our pride in our graduates is as strong as ever. Congratulations to the class of 2022!
Located in Lewiston, Maine, Bates is internationally recognized as a leading liberal arts college, attracting 2,000 students from across the U.S. and around the world. Since 1855, Bates has been dedicated to educating the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community. Committed to opportunity and excellence, Bates has always admitted students without regard to gender, race, religion, or national origin. Cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action, Bates prepares leaders sustained by a love of learning and zeal for responsible stewardship of the wider world.
