College celebrates 88th Annual Commencement and Commissioning Ceremony

Valley Forge Military College celebrated its 88th Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 10 in the Chapel of St. Cornelius the Centurion. 

Forty cadets were recognized for completing the requirements for their associate degree or certificate as prescribed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Board of Trustees of Valley Forge Military College, including class Valedictorian Alexander Rankin and class Salutatorian Brian Hagadorn.

“Sometimes you need to change in order to become the best version of yourself and leave the place you used call home to make a new one where you can thrive,” Cadet Rankin said in his address to the graduating class. “Don’t be afraid of changes and don’t be scared to jump into the unknown because in the end you will become who you want to be.”

Major General John R. Pippy, Adjutant General of Pennsylvania, served as the speaker during the Commencement Ceremony as well as the Commissioning Ceremony, when 32 cadets from the College’s ROTC Early Commissioning Program took the oath of office and officially became second lieutenants in the U.S. Army. They followed with a pinning ceremony in Eisenhower Hall and their first salute in front of the Battle of Bulge Monument.

MG Pippy serves as the 55th Adjutant General of Pennsylvania’s Department of Military and Veteran Affairs. He served as the director, Joint Staff, of the PA National Guard and as the deputy chief of engineers for National Guard Affairs at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Headquarters in Washington D.C. He deployed as the engineer director and headquarters battalion commander of Special Operations Joint Task Force Operation Iraqi Freedom as the commander of the 332nd Engineer Company.

“At Valley Forge, you’ve been trained in the fundamentals of discipline, duty and honor,” MG Pippy said. “You’ve learned how to lead platoons, manage pressures, and uphold standards, but your real test, it won’t come in the classroom or the barracks. It will come, as others have said, when no one is watching. It will come when doing the right thing is harder, lonelier and less celebrated. It will come when your decisions affect the lives of others. Whether you’re in uniform, in business, part of a community organization, or in academia, it will come.” 

The graduating class of cadets combined for a multitude of achievements during their time at Valley Forge Military College, in the classroom, through ROTC and in other activities.

Thirty-eight cadets from VFMC’s graduating class will continue to advance their education at prestigious universities like the University of Michigan and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Eighteen of VFMC’s newly commissioned second lieutenants are competing for active duty.

“The faculty and staff at Valley Forge are going to miss you deeply,” Provost of the College Dr. Robert Smith said. “You are a dynamic group of individuals that we are proud to have spent the last two years with. You, more than any class we’ve seen in the past seven years, have embraced the 5 Cornerstones of Valley Forge Military College, and have held yourselves to those standards.”