President Porterfield shares with our audience in France the history of Roberts and the mission of our school.
Greetings from the campus of Roberts Wesleyan College in western New York State! On behalf of our trustees, administrators, faculty, and students, I welcome you to today’s performance of the Roberts Wesleyan College Chorale. We are thrilled for the opportunity to share music with you that transcends time and culture and unites us in the spirit of Christian fellowship, beauty, and peace.
In 1866, Rev. Benjamin Titus (B.T.) Roberts founded a small school, which later
became Roberts Wesleyan College, with a clearly defined motto of “Education for Character.” The school was established to cultivate moral and religious learning as well as sound intellectual education. Roberts advocated and sought to live a life of freedom,
holiness, and justice that was for all the people, and especially for the poor. With his wife Ellen and other colleagues in ministry, and along with contemporaries Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, Roberts’ work and publications contributed to the social, political,
and church reforms of 19 th -century America, in issues of abolitionism, unjust economic
policies, racial discrimination, and the rights of women to vote and to serve in ministry.
We have the privilege to celebrate and steward our founder’s mission and vision
for our generation and the next. Roberts Wesleyan College provides a distinctive
faith-based and holistic education that allows our students to connect their heads
to their hearts and engage their hands in service to others. Through our many
undergraduate- and graduate-level programs, which include business, nursing,
teaching, and psychology, as well as through our excellent music program, we
believe our students and alumni make a positive difference in our world. When I
listen to the beautiful music of our Chorale, I feel blessed and hopeful. I pray the
same will be true for you today.
Peace,
Deana L. Porterfield, Ed.D.
President
Roberts Wesleyan College
