EAST LANSING, Mich. — The Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University banner will make its debut at MSU’s spring commencement ceremonies.

Virginia Borcherdt, of Marquette, who joined RCAH when it was founded two years ago when she was a junior, will hold the college’s banner at the university convocation at 1 p.m. May 8 at the Breslin Center. She will receive her undergraduate degree at the end of summer upon the completion of a class and internship.

RCAH is a unique living and learning experience for students interested in literature, history, ethics, visual and performing arts, and the study of languages and cultures. RCAH opened its doors to its first freshman class almost two years ago. Borcherdt found the smaller, intimate atmosphere of RCAH as the perfect fit for her compared to the larger lifestyle of MSU.

“The experience has been great for me,” she said. “Every time I come to the college I see the same faces and faculty. It’s definitely a feeling of community with these people living together and working together.”

A separate RCAH commencement for Borcherdt also will be held at 7 p.m. May 9 in Snyder Hall.

Kate Yelvington, of East Lansing, also a senior in RCAH who joined the program two years ago, will receive her undergraduate degree upon completion of the civic engagement component of the college in which students are required to work in the community and reflect on their work.

“The experience I have had in the program, and especially with the professors and staff, has been nothing but positive,” Yelvington said. “I was able to round out my education in a way that will open a lot of doors for me in my future endeavors, and the courses I took have powerfully influenced the path the rest of my life will take.”

Yelvington has been working at an organic farm in Italy since March and will return to Michigan this summer to complete the requirements necessary to receive her degree.

“It is a pleasure to have Kate Yelvington and Ginny Borcherdt as our first two RCAH graduates,” said Steve Esquith, RCAH dean. “Both of them were able to work within the still-evolving RCAH framework to create a course of study well-suited to their particular talents and love of learning.”

This summer, Borcherdt will move to Washington, D.C., and go on tour for two weeks with “Rock the Earth” — an advocate group that ensures sustainable and healthy environments — where she interned last summer. She also will take the MSU class, Federal Natural Resource Policy and, in conjunction with the class, will intern at a conservation group in the Washington, D.C., area.

“The international community here at MSU and within RCAH has been a wonderful experience,” Borcherdt said. “I’m prepared to go out and work with many types of people in many different organizations or businesses and to work with them and try to understand where they’re coming from. MSU, with its diversity and all its different interests, has prepared me for the greater world. I think of MSU as a microcosm of what could be outside of college.”

Borcherdt is unsure what will unfold after the summer, but is interested in living and working abroad in Ecuador, being an AmeriCorps volunteer or attending graduate school.

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Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.