CONWAY, Ark. – (April 10, 2009) Dr. Benjamin Bernard Dunlap, the current president of Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., will be the commencement speaker at Hendrix College’s 125th commencement exercises. The ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 9, on the lawn between Fausett Hall and Ellis Hall on the south side of Hendrix’s campus, adjacent to Spruce Street.
Dunlap has lectured and spoken widely in the U.S. and abroad, including an appearance as one of “Fifty Remarkable People” at the 2007 TED Conference in Monterey. A frequent moderator for the Aspen Institute’s Executive and CEO Seminars as well as its Henry Crown Fellowship and such affiliated programs as the Executive Seminar Asia, the Faculty Seminars at Wye, the Aspen-Rodel Fellowship, the Africa Leadership Initiative, the Central European Leadership Initiative, and the Liberty Fellowship of South Carolina, he has also designed and moderated seminars in Europe, Africa, and the U.S. for corporate clients as varied as the Netflix Corporation, Young & Rubicam, the Nova Chemical Corporation, and the Arab Banking Corporation.
The 10th President of Wofford College, Dunlap’s academic fields include literature, intellectual history, Asian studies, film history and criticism, fiction writing, and the arts. Dunlap’s many publications include poems, essays, anthologies, guides, and opera libretti as well as two novels in manuscript, Famous Dogs of the Civil War and Sunshine: The Autobiography of a Genius. He also previously performed as soloist and principal dancer for the Columbia City Ballet.
Dunlap will be speaking to the first Hendrix College class required to complete projects in the college’s Odyssey Program, an experiential learning program that encourages outside-the-classroom educational experiences that in many cases are designed by the students themselves. The Hendrix Odyssey Program, established in 2004, gives students transcript credit for the projects and requires Hendrix students to complete three Odyssey experiences during their undergraduate career in areas selected from six categories: Artistic creativity, global awareness, professional and leadership development, service to the world, undergraduate research and special projects.
Hendrix College, founded in 1876, is an undergraduate liberal arts college emphasizing experiential learning in a demanding yet supportive environment. The college is among 165 colleges featured in the 2009 edition of the Princeton Review America’s Best Value Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.