Charles Coe, Poet and Writer, to be Bay Path University Commencement Speaker on May 12

 Charles Coe, a Massachusetts-based poet and writer, will address Bay Path University’s 2018 graduating class at its 121^st Commencement to be held Saturday, May 12, at 4:00 p.m. at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, MA.  Over 1,000 students will have earned specialist in education, master and bachelor’s degrees. 

Charles Coe will be one of two honorary degree recipients to be recognized at the ceremony. The author of two books of poetry, All Sins Forgiven: Poems for my Parents and Picnic on the Moon, Mr. Coe is a prolific wordsmith. His poems have appeared in literary reviews and anthologies including Poesis, The Mom Egg, Solstice Literary Review, and Urban Nature. Selected by the Associates of the Boston Public Library as a “Boston Literary Light for 2014,” he is also the recipient of a poetry fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a Fellow of St. Botolph Club of Boston, and the 2016-2017 Artist-in-Residence for the City of Boston. As the Artist-in-Residence, Coe developed a community-based story collection called “What You Don’t Know About Me,” about people who live and work in or near Boston’s Mission Hill.  He combined the art of storytelling with photographs to produce a series of stand-alone essays that would allow the subjects to share with the reader surprising aspects of their lives. To learn more about the project, click here.

Dr. Vana Nespor, who retired from Bay Path in 2017, will also be a recipient of an honorary at the 2018 Commencement. Joining Bay Path in 1999, Dr. Nespor was instrumental in launching the radical One-Day Program for adult women on the Longmeadow campus. In time, additional locations across the state were open to accommodate the overwhelming demand of the program, transforming the lives of thousands of women. A bold innovator in education, Dr. Nespor played a key role in the development of The American Women’s College, a revolutionary learning model serving adult women online. Prior to retirement, she undertook a comprehensive research program that confirmed the incredible impact of our unique educational model.