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[Page S2511]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
175TH ANNIVERSARY OF OLIVET COLLEGE
Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, today I wish to pay special
tribute to Olivet College in Eaton County, which this year is
celebrating 175 years of educating the people of Michigan.
Let's think back to 1844. Michigan had been a State for only 7 years.
The very first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls in New York
was still 4 years away, and it would be another 19 years before
President Lincoln would sign the Emancipation Proclamation.
It was an era marked by gender and racial inequality; yet a group of
leaders led by ``Father'' John J. Shipherd had a different vision: a
college founded on the values of inclusion, mutual respect, honesty,
and integrity, a Christian institution where neither gender, nor race,
nor lack of financial resources would prevent people from attaining an
education.
This was a radical idea. Coeducation--women and men learning
alongside one another in the same classrooms--was rare at the time, so
was admitting Black students alongside White students and poor students
alongside the affluent.
It was so controversial, in fact, that Olivet College wasn't formally
chartered by the State until 1859. Then in 1863, in the midst of the
Civil War, the college honored its first graduating class: Mary N.
Barber, Sara Benedict, and Sophia A. Keys.
One hundred seventy-five years later, a lot has changed, but Olivet
College's core values remain the same.
Those values include diversity. Comets come from all across Michigan
and the United States and nine other nations around the world. Half are
the first person in their families to go to college, and half come from
low-income families. About 1 in 3 Comets are students of color.
Those values include inclusivity. That is a special focus of the
Olivet College Women's Leadership Institute, which helps young women
from middle school through college recognize and cultivate their unique
strengths and abilities and become Michigan's and America's next
generation of leaders.
Those values include community. Comets aren't just responsible for
their own education. Whether they are sharing perspectives in the
classroom, working together to score a goal on the soccer field, or
combining their voices in the Olivet College Gospel Choir, students are
committed to the growth of others.
Those values include service; 100 percent of Comets take part in
service learning, where students use what they have learned in the
classroom to solve real-life problems both in the community and around
the world. Just as it did in 1844, Olivet College understands that the
future of humanity rests in the hands, hearts, and minds of those who
will accept responsibility for themselves and others.
The founders of Olivet College once wrote this: ``We wish simply to
do good to our students, by placing in their hands the means of
intellectual, moral and spiritual improvement, and to teach them the
divine art and science of doing good to others.''
Doing good to others--since 1844, Olivet College has been doing just
that. Congratulations to students, faculty, staff, and alumni on your
first 175 years.
Thank you.
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