Members of Franklin & Marshall’s Class of 2025 will be honored during Commencement May 10 in the College's Alumni Sports & Fitness Center (ASFC).

The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. in the center, located on the north side of Harrisburg Avenue. Faculty and College leadership will line the ASFC walkway to welcome 450 seniors proceeding toward the ceremony. 

Guest attendance is limited to the graduates and their preregistered guests. Others may view the virtual Commencement broadcast at the Ann & Richard Barshinger Center for the Musical Arts; tickets are not required.

The ceremony will be broadcast live through the F&M Commencement website. An on-demand recording of the ceremony also will be available after May 10. 

Members of the graduating cohort have emerged as leaders, scholars and humanitarians despite the challenges of graduating high school in the midst of a global pandemic.

F&M President Barbara Altmann encouraged class members to embrace the “rich space of possibility” at the College during their August 2021 convocation.

Speakers and Honorees

The May 10 ceremony will feature Commencement speaker Sandra Cisneros, celebrated poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, author of children’s books, performer and artist who has focused much of her work on the lives of the working class in the U.S. Cisneros was the 2019 F&M Mueller Fellow, spending two days on campus. She will receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters.

Cisneros has earned fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in both poetry and fiction, the American Book Award, a National Medal of Arts, and the Ford Foundation’s Art of Change Fellowship, among other awards. This year, the National Book Critics Circle awarded her the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award.

Also receiving honorary degrees at Commencement will be Danene Sorace and Jonathan Groff. Sorace, the 43rd mayor of the City of Lancaster, receives an honorary doctorate of humane letters. Groff, of Lancaster, has earned a Tony Award and a Grammy Award for singing and acting. He is starring in a new musical on Broadway, so his honorary doctorate of fine arts will be accepted by Sue Fisher, a retired schoolteacher from Conestoga Valley and his first drama instructor. 

Visit the Commencement website for the latest information. 

Class of 2025 Fast Facts

• 450 students
• 92 double majors
• 180 with minors
• 62 international students
• 80 first-generation students
• 17 Lancaster County students