DELAWARE — Kayla Richard of Minster, graduated this spring from Ohio Wesleyan University. Richard earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Ohio Wesleyan’s Class of 2018 included 323 spring, summer, and fall graduates. The class also included 52 cum laude, 25 magna cum laude, and 14 summa cum laude honorees.

Five graduates were recognized for achieving perfect 4.0 grade point averages: Colleen P. Chernowsky of Goodrich, Michigan; Abigail E. Connell of Hilliard, Ohio; Chloe E. Dyer of Guysville, Ohio; Meaghan J. Teitelman of Concord, Massachusetts; and Hope M. Walls of Delaware, Ohio.

The May 12 commencement ceremony was a day for celebrating accomplishments, for turning tassels and tossing caps, and for dancing like no one was watching.

Actually, keynote speaker Paul R. Schimmel, Ph.D., told the Ohio Wesleyan graduates, every day is a day for such daring dancing. Schimmel, a 1962 OWU alumnus and celebrated scientist, titled his remarks, “The Only Way to Be a Great Dancer.”

“When you dance as if no one is looking,” Schimmel said, “you keep moving. You keep going. You’ve broken out of dogma and consensus.”

During his remarks, Schimmel, a genetic research and biotechnology industry leader, discussed how some of the nation’s vital medical breakthroughs have been achieved by thinking critically, by moving forward in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and by looking beyond current dogma and consensus.

“Your greatest danger in life is dogma and consensus,” he said. “Just remember that.”

One such breakthrough, Schimmel said, was the development of a medication to treat infection-related sepsis. Since its introdcution, the medication has helped to save more than 300,000 lives in addition to hundreds of thousands of arms and legs that previously would have required amputation.