The day we have all been waiting for is here: Welcome, Class of 2024 and our distinguished guests! I am thrilled to join your families and supporters today.
It is truly a privilege to congratulate these soon-to-be alumni on this outstanding accomplishment. It took focused dedication, exceptional balance, and rigorous study to achieve this level of excellence, and I commend you for the commitment you have demonstrated.
I’d like to also highlight another group of individuals in our community who have reached important milestones during the past year. I wish to honor the 23 faculty who have earned tenure and/or promotion during the past year. Thank you, for your commitment to our students, and to our institution.
I also wish to thank the families and supporters who have provided critical support on their student’s journey to graduation, especially those who played an active role in the life of the college.
Graduates, the gowns, caps and tassels that all of you wear unite you and reflect not just pageantry but pride and purpose. Through additional cords, stoles and pins, many of you are representing who you are or who you have become. They signify your impressive achievements in athletics, work experiences, organizations, and honor societies.
Although they differentiate you in some ways, they also celebrate the only things every graduate shares: the uniqueness of your story and your commitment to build upon it. You come from many states and from around the world. It is the weaving together of your respective perspectives that gives the Class of 2024 its inspiring strength and enduring character. There can never be another class exactly like yours, and we already miss you.
This is a special class. For most of you, your high school graduations were cut short, socially-distanced or moved online. Families crowded around laptop screens to see you graduate. Neighbors congratulated seniors by driving by their homes, honking their horns and waving out the window.
The challenges you have overcome were unimaginable to the alumni who came before you. But to all of you, the very fact that you are sitting here today is proof of your resilience. You have served as models for our community by demonstrating compassion, grace, and persistence. You have endured much and you have excelled greatly. You have places to get to, and we cannot wait to see where you go next.
2024 Presidential Welcome
"The challenges you have overcome were unimaginable to the alumni who came before you. But to all of you, the very fact that you are sitting here today is proof of your resilience. You have served as models for our community by demonstrating compassion, grace, and persistence. You have endured much and you have excelled greatly. You have places to get to, and we cannot wait to see where you go next."
Following a tradition begun in 1992, the college’s centennial year, each graduate has received a medallion inscribed with a quotation chosen by the college’s president. Twenty-five years ago, the quotation chosen was from poet and commencement speaker Dr. Maya Angelou. This year’s quotation comes from another brilliant poet, Amanda Gorman. It reads: “For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to SEE it, if only we’re brave enough to BE it.”
I am reminded of two things by this quote: the resilience of human hope and the boundless depth of the human spirit.
There is always light. You have already lived through darkness and dare I say you are living through it still. You have seen disruption, upheaval, and war. Yet, the sun still rose, lives were lived, babies were born, romance still blossomed. People did their best to support one another and those who had hope offered a bit of it to others, even complete strangers.
Hope, along with love, are our most profound renewable resources, but they take effort to replenish and reignite. Remember that you can be a source of replenishment and reignition for someone else. In fact, you already are – to one another, to the people in this room. Graduates, you are also that light to me and to everyone on this stage.
Let choosing to be a light become a part of your routine. Whether it is a kind word, a warm smile, or a random act of kindness, choose to give of yourself and when you cannot muster even that, and this is perhaps even more important, accept that light from someone, something, somewhere, ANY where. Do not give up. Know that light is coming.
Sometimes light must be pointed out to us. We can help each other find the rays of light peaking over the horizon illuminating a path forward, a way to see compassion, see grace, see love. But first, we must seeone another. Now more than ever, we must view the world deeply through the multiple perspectives which is reflective of an education rooted and grounded in the liberal arts tradition. We are indeed each other’s keepers and our ability to survive let alone thrive is directly tied to our ability to listen, to question, and to seek understanding.
"Let choosing to be a light become a part of your routine. Whether it is a kind word, a warm smile, or a random act of kindness, choose to give of yourself and when you cannot muster even that, and this is perhaps even more important, accept that light from someone, something, somewhere, ANY where. Do not give up. Know that light is coming."
In closing, I say that to those whom much is given, much will be required. You have been given much. You have received an outstanding education from some of the best teachers, scholars, clinicians, and practitioners in the world. You have learned how to think, speak, write, and act critically, creatively, and analytically. Your professional training has prepared you for success in your chosen field.
And now before you go forth into the world, remember that you are not just graduating from here, you are launching from here. Wherever you go, please think of us often and know we will leave a light on for you. In the words of Neil Diamond, “Turn on your heart light. Let it shine wherever you go. Let it make a happy glow for all the world to see.” You came here as a spark, but now you are a beacon - of light, of joy, of possibility. May you light a path for others and may you know this place will always be home. Congratulations!