Amherst College graduation ceremony

By Kristin Palpini
Staff Writer

Published on May 30, 2008

Date and location: Sunday, May 25, main quadrangle.

Number of graduates: 445.

Degrees awarded: Bachelor's degrees.

Most popular majors: Economics, English, political science, psychology and history.

Keynote speaker: College President Anthony W. Marx.

Student spotlight: Daniel J. Cluchey, student speaker, political science major and Maine native. Cluchey will most likely attend law school this fall and hopes to use his Amherst degree in the fields of either environmental or public interest law.

Verbatim: "I hope to remember everything about my time at Amherst, but my favorite memories will be of the many incredible people I've had the opportunity to meet and learn from in and out of class."

Honorary degree recipients: Robert H. Brown Jr., a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and director of the Day Neuromuscular Research Laboratory and Muscular Dystrophy Association clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital as well as a 1969 alumnus; Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone; Mohamed El Baradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency; Henry A. Freedman, executive director of the National Center for Law and Economic Justice and a 1962 alumnus; Shirley M. Tilghman, president of Princeton University; Sir Brian Urquhart, former undersecretary-general of the United Nations; and Saraswathi Vedam, professor and director of the University of British Columbia's division of midwifery and a 1978 alumnus.

Percentage of 2008 students who were high school valedictorians: 19 percent.

Most common home state: New York.