Monroeville native honored in W.Va. college's first-ever 'graduation tour'

Almost everything about a Monroeville native’s graduation ceremony from a West Virginia college was non-traditional this year.

The date, the place and the size were different. But the in-person aspect was intact.

Julia Hancock, who now lives in Wooster, Ohio, graduated from Davis & Elkins College during its first-time “graduation tour” in September.

The coronavirus pandemic forced the small Presbyterian Church-affiliated college to scrap its spring commencement and think outside the box, said Chris Wood, president of Davis & Elkins.

“We talk a lot about giving our students that personalized experience,” Wood said. “I mean, we know their hopes and dreams. And so, we weren’t comfortable going virtual – that’s not who we were. We really wanted to go back, but we couldn’t put the campus at risk. So we thought if we couldn’t bring them back here, we’d bring us to them.”

So for the first time in its 116-year history, the college held a graduation tour, dubbed the “D&E Journey Tour.” Officials stopped at nine different cities in one week to hold small graduation ceremonies in places close to home for its 2020 graduating class of 54.

Some of the ceremonies included one or two graduating students.

One of those stops was Akron, Ohio, a 45-minute drive from Wooster for Hancock. The graduation ceremony honored Hancock and another student from Massillon, Ohio.

“It was very odd,” said Hancock of the graduation ceremony. “But it was so very nice to be able to have that experience even if it wasn’t at the usual campus.”

She said the college’s decision to take graduation on the road was easy to understand.

“It’s a very small college. We have, I think, less than 1,000 students total,” she said. “So it makes it even nicer because we get to know our teachers better, even our fellow students.”

This year was also Wood’s fourth year as the college’s president, she said.

“We all started together,” Hancock said.

Wood said the 2020 class held a special place in his heart, making the decision to hold individualized graduation ceremonies easier to make.

“I used to kid with them that we went up through the ranks together. They’re just a little smarter than I am because they actually graduated. I have a special connection with them,” he said.

Hancock, who grew up in Monroeville, graduated as the college’s salutatorian with a degree in outdoor recreation management and a minor in sustainability studies. She said she’d like to someday own and operate a center that runs hiking trips, has a climbing wall and rents out kayaks to use in a nearby lake.