Jacob Mitchell ’25 graduates this month. In a few weeks he’ll speak at commencement as the Student Body Association President, walk across a stage to cheering family and friends in attendance on the Quad and, diploma in hand, and join his classmates as a member of Guilford College’s Class of 2025.

That’s the easy part. For Jacob, the hard part is figuring out how he got here. The walk, the talk, the flowing gown he’ll be wearing or the diploma he’ll he holding – he’s having a hard time processing everything.

“Makes no sense at all,” says Jacob, a Psychology major who will attend Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in the fall. “I’m having trouble figuring out how it all happened so quickly.”

Jacob arrived at Guilford in 2023 as a junior, He spent his last two years of high school attending Surry Community College in Dobson, N.C.

“I came here with the goal of having a four-year experience and I feel like I have,” says Jacob. “I feel like it’s gone by so slowly but it must have been quick because here we are.”

Part of that, says Jacob, is that Guilford’s community makes it difficult to stand on the sidelines as an observer. “The community here, the environment that makes it open to have important conversations and care about your classmates is special. You want to be more involved.”

Jacob says that community and the activities surrounding it made his two years a bit of a blur. “I can think of so many details that have filled every single week and every single month,” he says. “But it just doesn’t make sense to be graduating. I think I got put into a time vortex.”

Even after only two years at Guilford, Jacob says he sees himself in another light. “I look at myself, the way I view others, the way I connect with others, the things I value, it’s just very different than when I got here,” he says.

Jacob made the most of his time at Guilford. Besides serving as student president, he served as chair of the College’s Inter-Club Council, was a member of Guilford Christian Ministry, a student ambaassador and an Ethical Leadership Fellow.

“I don’t think I wasted any energy here on things I didn’t care about and the people I care about,” he says. My next stop is going to be a lot harder to enjoy because of what I experienced here. The effort I put in at Guilford, I don’t feel like I’ve wasted any energy here because the energy I spent was about stuff and people I care about.”