Dr. Mark Hasten, Chairman of the Board of Touro College and University System, opened the awards ceremony with some welcoming words, after which Rosh HaYeshiva Rabbi Yonasan Sacks delivered some divrei bracha, followed by a Farewell video.

The title of valedictorian this year was awarded to Seth Levitin, who achieved a 3.98 GPA throughout his time at LCM. Having earned one of the highest scores in the country on the Dental Admissions Test (DAT), he will be attending Columbia University’s College of Dental Medicine this fall.

Psychology major Asael Kent was named Lander College for Men Salutatorian. Other awardees included Yishai Valter, who won the Beis Medrash L’Talmud Gemara Award; Samuel Kahn, who won The Dr. Bernard Lander Memorial Award; and Menachem Rimler, who won the Research Award. 

Eli Feder was awarded the 2016 LCM Student Service Award “for having, in the eyes of faculty and students, the most exemplary record of outstanding service to the college and the community.” Feder, who served as President of SGO this past year, held many leadership positions throughout his years at LCM: Under Class Representative, Student Ambassador, RA, and founder of the Ramban Club. For the past four years, he has actively volunteered for NCSY Kollel. On weekends, he is youth director of his shul, Etz Chaim of West Hempstead, and is a medical clown for children in hospitals. “Eli Feder set the bar very high for all his successors in future LCM Student Governments,” said Dean Sokol in a statement.

In his speech, Gemara Award recipient Yishai Valter thanked the administration and his fellow graduates for creating a college experience filled with “priceless camaraderie and warmth.” He encouraged his classmates to “repay the kindnesses which we owe Hashem, our rebbeim, parents, deans, administration, faculty and each other…to harness our new skills and knowledge to grow in Torah, avodas hashem, and middos tovos, as well as succeed in our future academic and professional endeavors in order to offer the next generation the amazing opportunity which have been granted to us.”

Dean Moshe Sokol concluded the afternoon with some parting thoughts on future decision-making. "You will be called to make important choices in life, amongst competing goods.  And you will be called to discriminate between what is truly good, and what is only the appearance of good. We hope we have given you the tools, and the deep Torah values and learning, to make those choices well."

Congratulations, graduates!