Nadia Harerimana '18 introduces a fellow classmate at the 2018 COA commencement ceremony. As per COA tradition, students hand each other flowers as they accept their degrees.
Kondo was eight months old in 1945 when the first atomic bomb was dropped just a half-mile from her house in Hiroshima, Japan, burying her mother and herself under their home. Too young to remember details of the event, Kondo grew up witnessing its horrific consequences. She has learned to embrace the enormous contradictions and paradoxes of her experiences, and now exudes an inspiring, affirmative energy and compassion as she travels the world relating the story of hibakusha, which means “explosion-affected people.”
“Koko is one of the kindest, warmest, and most captivating people I have ever met. Her story is a testament to peace I believe every person should hear,” said COA student Devyn Adams ’19. 
Commencement is a special time at COA, with friends, family, alumni, staff, students, and faculty gathering from near and far to celebrate the accomplishments of the graduating class.“It has been 74 years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and there will soon be a time when survivors are no longer here to tell their stories. Now is the time to listen, and to carry these stories with us into the future.”
The COA class of 2019 includes educators, entrepreneurs, writers, artists, scientists, policy analysts, historians, wellness practitioners, and organic farmers. More than 57 percent of the senior class has had an international academic experience during their tenure here, and 100 percent have done an academic internship.
Providing student perspectives during the Commencement ceremony will be Aadityakrishna Sathish ’19, Ky Osguthorpe ’19, and Jack Budd ’19. Susan Bell ’19 will offer words of welcome and Devyn Adams ’19 will introduce the keynote speaker.
“Like thousands of COA students before them, these 82 unique expressions of human ecology will leave COA eager to help shape the future of communities across the world, and I could not be more proud,” said COA President Darron Collins ’92. “When I see these students walk across the stage to receive their degrees, I am reminded of why we do what we do here. I wish them all the very best as they move on to the next stages of their lives.”
The program will begin with a bagpipe processional by the Anah Highlanders. Two COA professors, each of whom is retiring this year, will share Grand Marshal duties: creative writing and literature professor William Carpenter, who is a founding faculty member of the college, and philosophy professor John Visvader.
Peace activist and prominent Hiroshima nuclear bomb survivor Koko Tanimoto Kondo gives the keynote address at COA's 46th commencement ceremony. Credit: Ian C. Bates/The Athens NewsHonorary Master of Philosophy degrees in human ecology will be granted to Kondo and to retired Acadia National Park biologist Bruce Connery. Over his 25 years with Acadia, Connery worked extensively with faculty and students at College of the Atlantic and other institutions, mentoring dozens of COA students along the way.
Music at Commencement will be provided by the Maine Saxophone Quartet, featuring the work of COA Composer-in-Residence John Cooper. A reception in Newlin Garden will follow the ceremony.
As part of the college’s commitment to sustainability, COA celebrations always consider environmental impacts. All paper used at the commencement is recycled, all disposable tableware is composted, no bottled water is served, and as much food as possible is organic and locally sourced. All food waste is composted.
College of the Atlantic is premised on the belief that education should go beyond understanding the world as it is to enabling students to actively shape the future. A leader in experiential learning and environmental stewardship, COA was named the #1 Green College in the U.S. by The Princeton Review and the Sierra Club in 2016-2018. Every COA student designs their own major in human ecology—which integrates knowledge from across academic disciplines and seeks to understand and improve the relationships between humans and their natural, built, and social environments—and sets their own path toward a degree.
COA commencement is held under a big tent on the school's north lawn.
