Caius Mergy, son of Michele and Lee Mergy of Old Lyme, Conn., received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Classics from Middlebury College on Sunday, May 28. Caius graduated summa cum laude and also received Honors from the Department of Classics.
In addition, Caius was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, America’s most prestigious academic honor society, to which about one college senior in 100 nationwide is invited to join annually.
Middlebury College President Laurie L Patton presided over the ceremony and conferred degrees on the 552 graduating seniors. Each graduate also received the traditional Middlebury cane, a replica of the one used by Gamaliel Painter, one of the college’s leading founders.
Jon Meacham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, gave a 20-minute Commencement address.
In the Fall, Caius will be attending Oxford University in England, where he will be pursuing a Master of Philosophy degree in Classical Archaeology, where he plans to focus on Ancient Greece.
Prior to moving to England, Caius will spend this summer working at a new archaeological excavation of a religious sanctuary on a small island off the coast from Athens, Greece.
Founded in 1800, Middlebury is a top-tier liberal arts college located in the Champlain Valley of central Vermont. Middlebury offers a rigorous liberal arts curriculum that is particularly strong in environmental studies, international studies, languages, sciences, and literature. The college’s undergraduate enrollment is about 2,500.