Randolph College graduates those ‘who chose to stay’

They are known as “the students who chose to stay.”

The 144 students, mostly women, who graduated from Randolph College on Sunday were the 112th class to enter the former Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. They chose to remain at the college when it adopted coeducation two years ago.

And, a sign of the school’s new identity, their class grew to include two male students.

“You are veteran adaptors,” commencement speaker and alumna Grace Gary told the class, “and while it was an unintended consequence of the college’s transformation, this experience will stand you in good stead in the next few years.”

Sequoyah Healy-Louer, one of two male students who graduated Sunday, said graduation was a bittersweet experience.

“I’ll miss the college and will miss some dear friends that I’ve made; will miss professors,” he said. “But it’s great. I’m ready for the next step.”

The political science major lived near Bedford as a child, then went to a junior college in California where he earned his associate degree.

He decided to return to Virginia for his remaining education, and heard about Randolph College from several friends who already were enrolled.

“The opportunity to go to a school that I heard had great academics was appealing,” he said, “and also to be a pioneer of sorts — to be part of a fledgling soccer program and to be part of the first male class was intriguing.”

“Then when I visited the campus, I fell in love with it. It felt like it was the right place.”

Ara Friedman, who graduated with a degree in political science, went to elementary school with Healy-Louer and encouraged her friend to apply.

“My attitude was sort of, ‘I’m not really happy to have men join the community, but if they have to, they may as well ought to be friends of mine,’ ” she said. “It was nice to have him here for the last two years.”

She said her time at the college has been fulfilling.

“I really cherish the community at Randolph, and I think that it gave me a strong basis to go out into the world,” she said.

Ashley Hale, who earned a degree in English, said the male students she has gotten to know on campus are “just really good people.”

“It was disappointing at first, and we were all heartbroken,” she said. “But it has really been better than I originally thought it was going to be.”

Although the first year of transition was difficult, Friedman said this school year has been “a lot more positive.”

That also seemed apparent at Sunday’s ceremony.

While many graduates used last year’s commencement as a platform to silently protest changes at the school, that was toned down for the class of 2009.

Senior Class President Jackie Hockersmith, who spoke at the ceremony, encouraged the class to “not remember the unhappy events of our sophomore year (when the college’s board of trustees voted to adopt coeducation.)”

“Nothing can break us, only make us stronger. And that is exactly what happened to us — we have banded together as a class … While the decision left the classes before us broken and factionalized, we have weathered the storm in unity, as sisters, and as one.”

She told her classmates that each of them has a home at the college.

“Our college is a place of bricks and mortar, yet she lives on inside each one of us,” she said. “She has made us powerful, intelligent, caring, spunky, passionate and tenacious. She has made all of us Macon women.”

Healy-Louer said his fond memories of the college include learning “how to interact with women. I learned a lot in that sense.”

Another aspect of being part of the first coed class since the school became Randolph College?

“I feel like there’s a little extra pressure for me to be successful.”