Houghton's Gilligan Named Co-Valedictorian at Spring Commencement
Senior baseball student-athlete
Joseph Gilligan wrapped up his four years at Houghton College by being recognized as co-Valedictorian of the Class of 2017.
Gilligan finished his degree with a 4.0 GPA while double majoring in accounting and business administration and minoring in economics.
He earned Empire 8 President's List Honors every semester and is a two-time NCCAA All-America Scholar-Athlete.
In addition to his baseball participation, Gilligan was highly involved across campus. He served as president of the Houghton Investment Group and president of Houghton Student Enterprises, volunteered as a tax preparer for VITA, served as a teaching assistant in economics and a tutor for statistics. He also was a columnist for the Houghton Star newspaper, contributing articles on money and politics, and he served one summer as an intern for the United States Congress.
"While all these activities were a lot fun, baseball taught me more about life than books or research. We have to be good at time management, finding time to study on the bus, between rain delays and in Houghton's case…snow-outs. We have to be flexible and ready for change. We have to be good at communication between the professors and the coaching staff, as we serve two masters, balancing our academics and our athletics. We have to be good teammates, helping and supporting one another in times of family crisis or just helping someone with a math problem. We have to prepare and execute as a team and as an individual.
"Baseball has given me a 'competitive advantage' in life preparation. I don't think I am the only one that believes this. When I was recruited by the top accounting firms, the interviewer, male or female, smiled at my GPA and my related course work, nodded his or her head at my extracurricular activities, and then spent the whole interview focusing on baseball. They wanted to know about my success, but they really wanted to know about my failure and my loss. They were searching into my character which baseball reveals better than any résumé."
The native of Ringwood, N.J., has already accepted a position with the accounting firm of Deloitte and Touche.