Barrytown Undergrads Wave Poetic Farewell

Faculty and students of Barrytown College said goodbye to each other Friday, May 22, 2015 with their signature elements of emo, film, PowerPoint, poetry and – oh yes – group dancing. By all appearances, a lot of memories had been packed into a short two-year span in which Unification Theological Seminary had launched its first undergraduate program.

Keisuke Noda, Ph.D, Interim Dean and Professor of Philosophy wished his students well in their continuing studies at other schools and added that “I’m pretty confident that you will never have an education better than here at Barrytown College.” He added: “You will always be proud of being an Alum of Barrytown College, because what you did here is inscribed in the heart of God.”

Master of Ceremonies Mathews Bello, a student from Brazil, kept the laughs flowing for more than two hours. There were testimonies aplenty.

“Barrytown College gave me a lot of confidence because there are so many people appreciating me; I learned that I have a really strong person inside of me,” said Ruta Smith.

Dachul Okamoto explained, “I really feel like I accomplished what I came here to do – reignite my fervor for life and my artistic creativity. First it was drawing, then studying guitar, then making film. I really felt that there was whole-body education here. It was a great space for regeneration for me. It regenerated my childlike attitude about life.”

Mikako Kizuka created a photographic tribute on slides which featured a portrait of each of her fellow students and personally sang the voice over film with her own song in Japanese. She broke down in tears near the end.

Rachel Curry, the Director of Student Life, led the students through a review of the “belief statements” they had composed during their freshman seminar and asked students to articulate to each other the ways in which they had changed during two years.

The audience was treated to a lively and concise 15-minute animated film illustrating three schools of ethical thought, a project completed as a philosophy-course requirement by a student team that included Sung Soon Gaval and Takayoshi Sugawara.

Susan Herrman, one of three students who would receive an undergraduate diploma the following day at the UTS chapel, read several of her short poems, including the poem entitled “Meaning.”

The last verse was as follows:  I accept the challenge

                                                    To discard the unholiness

                                                     And redesign

                                                     Reinvent

                                                     Rediscover

                                                     And to recover holiness

                                                     Within and Without

                                                     It begins now with meaning

Contributed by Douglas Burton