SANTA FE, NM (PRWEB) April 09, 2018
St. John’s College is pleased to announce that Lydia Polgreen, Editor-in-Chief of HuffPost, will be the keynote speaker at the college’s Santa Fe campus commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 19, 2018. The commencement ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 19 on Weigle Placita. Polgreen is a 1997 alumna of the Annapolis campus of St. John’s College and a member of the College’s Board of Visitors and Governors.
“Ms. Polgreen exemplifies the accomplishments of St. John’s graduates, who go into the world asking deep questions that lead them to exciting places. They combine an insatiable curiosity and a passion for knowledge in ways that are increasingly uncommon – and increasingly needed,” says Mark Roosevelt, President of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, which also has a campus in Annapolis, Maryland. “She’s distinguished herself as a journalist by bringing important stories to the readers of The New York Times and now HuffPost, and we’re proud to count her as an alumna. We know her address will inspire our graduates to head into the world ready to make their own mark.”
Polgreen was named editor-in-chief of HuffPost in December 2016 after nearly 15 years at the New York Times, where she led an initiative to expand its audience outside the United States, with an initial focus on Latin America. While there, Polgreen held a number of positions including Deputy International Editor, South Africa bureau chief, New Delhi bureau correspondent, and chief of the West Africa bureau. Before joining The Times, she was a reporter in Florida and New York state. She began her career as assistant editor and business manager for The Washington (D.C.) Monthly.
Ms. Polgreen was a 2006 recipient of the George Polk Award for foreign reporting, in recognition of her travels deep into the war-torn western regions of Sudan to report on the carnage in Darfur. She received the 2008 Livingston Award for international reporting, for her series, “The Spoils,” an account of how mineral wealth has brought misery and exploitation to much of Africa. In 2007, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Polgreen shared her views on the value of St. John’s College in a recent interview about her involvement with the St. John’s College Board of Visitors and Governors. “Liberal education right now is really at a crossroads, and seeing everything that’s happening in our country, and frankly, the world, it seemed that this was a good moment to serve and participate in trying to sustain what I think is a really important institution of higher learning. I really believe in the classical liberal education as a salve to what ails America right now, so when I was asked to serve, I was absolutely thrilled to join.”
Members of the Class of 2018, approximately 67 undergraduates and 22 graduate students, came to St. John’s from many states, including 10 from New Mexico, and from 16 countries including Nigeria, Korea, China, South Africa, Turkey, Austria and the United Kingdom.
About St. John’s College
St. John’s College holds a distinctive position among American colleges and universities. Its strong commitment to collaborative inquiry and to the study of original texts makes it a particularly vibrant community of learning where close engagement with many of the world’s greatest writers and thinkers — from Homer, Plato, and Euclid to Nietzsche, Einstein, and Woolf — inspire students to grapple with the most fundamental, and essential, of human questions. These qualities lead alumni into fields as diverse as Wall Street banking, winemaking, law, neuroscience, social entrepreneurism and academia, where “Johnnies” are known for their self-directed ability to delve deep and fearlessly into unknown territory while asking questions that others miss; these questions often lead to unexpected and innovative approaches to vexing problems.
Located on two campuses in two historic state capitals – Annapolis, Maryland and Santa Fe, New Mexico – St. John’s boasts being the third oldest college in America; has the second highest rated faculty in the nation (2017 Princeton Review); is in the top two percent of all colleges and universities in the nation whose graduates go on to earn PhDs; has been hailed for being the “most future-proof college in America” by Quartz and for having the “courage to be distinct” by David Brooks of the New York Times.
St. John’s College offers BA and MA degrees in the liberal arts on both campuses; the Santa Fe campus also offers an MA in the Eastern Classics. More info at sjc.edu.