(Music Playing) Good evening, everyone, and welcome to commencement for the College of Social Science for 2026.

Go green.

Go White.

On behalf of the faculty and academic staff from the College of Social Science I welcome you to our ceremony.

We are celebratin one of the most important events in each of your lives.

Earning a baccalaureate degree is a great achievement for the faculty and academic staff.

Tonigh is the renewal of our purpose.

We would like to take a moment now to honor all veterans and active military personnel in this evening's ceremony.

Thank you for your sacrifices that you've made and for all your dedicated service to the United States.

Would all veteran and active military personnel.

Please stand if you're able.

And again, accept our appreciation.

We ask now that ou guests join students and faculty in singing one stanza of America the Beautiful under the direction of conductor Emily Trapani and Miss Ameera Coleman, who will lead the singing?

I ask you to rise if you're able.

(Singing and performance of America the Beautiful) Be seated.

Toda we bring together our community to celebrate our graduates and their accomplishments.

We also know it is important to honor the memories of those important to us who have passed.

We now take a moment of silenc to reflect upon their memories and to consider ho we can live our lives each day in ways that honor their impact.

Thank you.

At this time, I would like to introduce the Honorable Rebecca Bahar Cook of the MSU Board of Trustees.

Rebecca Bahar-Cook was elected to the Michigan State University Board of Trustees for an eight year term beginning on January 1st, 2025.

Rebecca served 11 year as Ingham County Commissioner, representing parts of the City of Lansing from 2006 to 2016.

She also served on the Am County Jury Board as chairperson for the Ingham County Board of Canvassers.

As CEO of Capitol Fundraising Associates, she consults with a wide range of nonprofit organizations and initiatives to help them strategize, develop, and execute comprehensive fundraising strategies.

Now, while most clients are human service organizations, Bahar-Cook also helped raise funds to promote good government and bipartisan agreement, such as the MSU Michigan Political Leadership Program, a program that identifies individuals from across the state, committed a community service and brings them together to engage in public policy and leadership curriculum.

Rebecca Bahar-Cook graduated with a multi-disciplinary degree from our college, the MSU College of Social Science, in 1992.

As an active member of the community, Bahar Cook serves on the Capitol Area and Michigan Works Workforce Development Board, the Capito Regional Community Foundation, the U of M health, Spero Specialty Board, and she is president of the Rotary Club of Lansing from 2024 to 2024.

Bahar-Cook resides in East Lansing with her husband, Todd, and is the proud parent of two graduates, including a recent graduate, just this weekend.

Thank you.

Dean Donnellan.

On behalf of the Michigan State Board of Trustees, I welcome all the graduates, family and friends who are here with us today.

Under the Michigan Constitution, the Board of Trustees is the governing body of the university by whose authority degrees are awarded.

Today's ceremony represents the culmination of hard work and dedication.

Graduation is no small accomplishment.

The degree you have earned acknowledges your success and honors those who have supported and encouraged you.

Our wish is that you will continue to serve as leaders who use your time, skills, and talent to advance the common goo and make a positive difference in the world.

Our faculty, the administrators, and the MSU trustees are all very proud of you.

Please accept our warmes congratulations and best wishes.

We pay tribute today to graduates who have ha the distinction of maintaining the highest grade point average in the class, thereby meriting a 4.0 grade point average.

The names of the four student present today are on the screens behind me.

To be eligible for a 4.0, at least three fourths of the credits for the degree must be earned in residence at Michigan State University.

This honor is designated by the green, white, and gold braided corn cord worn by the Academic Row worn with the academic growth.

This spring semester, 320 students earned a four point grade point average.

But even better than that of those 320 students, 45 are in the College of Social Science.

Students.

Please rise and remain standin to accept our congratulations.

Award recipients.

You should be proud of your outstanding academic records that honor you and the University.

On behalf of the facult administrations and the trustees of the University.

I congratulate you, and I wish you the best.

At this time, we're going to recognize the number of student award winners.

These students have accomplished many great things during their time at Michigan State.

And first, we're going to mention the winner of the Udall undergraduate scholarship.

This honors the legacy of Morris K Udell and Stephanie L. Udall, all whose careers had a significant impact o Native American self-governance, health care, and the stewardship of public lands and natural resources.

The Udall Undergraduat Scholarship Program identifies future leaders in environmental, tribal, public policy in health care fields.

The winner of this award is Caitlin Casper from the Department of Sociology.

And as you will see, we are in the company of greatness with our winners tonight.

Now I'm going to introduc my friend and colleague, doctor Mark Largent, vice provost for undergraduate education and dean of Undergraduate studies, who will introduce the recipient of the Richar Lee Featherstone Endowed Prize.

Good evening.

It is my honor to presen the Featherstone Endowed Prize, an award that recognizes the most outstanding graduating senior.

And by outstanding, we mean someone who embodies exactly what it is.

When we talk about a Spartan, someone with intellectual curiosity, creativity, leadership, and most of all, a deep commitment to enriching the lives of others.

This year's recipient, Kaylin Casper, most certainly exemplifies all these qualities and achievements.

Kaylin would you please join me up here?

Kayli now has to stand here awkwardly while I talk about her for a while.

So Kaylin is graduating with majors in sociology, women's and Gende Studies, and Humanities Pre-Law with a 4.0 GPA.

She distinguished herself from a very crowded field of incredible graduates through both her academic excellence and a relentless commitment to pursuing knowledge in the service of justice.

Her research ranged from the representation of indigenous peoples and textbooks, to the construction of a groundbreaking international data se on indigenous rights litigation.

It demonstrated both intellectual ingenuity and a willingness to tackl complex, consequential problems.

But what set Kaylin apart in this year's Featherstone competition was how she bridged scholarship into action.

As co-president of the North American Indigenous Student Organization and a leader in student government, she created lasting institutional change by helping secure funding fo a permanent land acknowledgment, advancing indigenous student housing, and strengthening the community of native students.

On this campus.

Her leadership extends beyond MSU, where she has mobilized thousands of student voters and worked to expand civic participation among otherwise marginalized communities.

Like many of yo who are graduating here today, Kaylin, it's time at MSU was not without significant academic and personal challenges, and the selection committee saw how these difficulties both shaped her character and deepened her resolve to pursue a caree in public service and advocacy.

Also, like many of you, Kaylin has brought her famil and friends with her here today.

A dozen of them, and I know they're right up in front of me here.

I have them all.

Mom and grandma and Aunt Bunny, and a dozen others.

And I know that they all carry with them as Kaylin does.

The memory of Kaylin's father.

And I know, lik us, they're very proud of what she's accomplished here at MSU and who she has become.

And what we're excited to see her do.

And Caitlin, we see the very spirit of the Featherstone Prize, a mind alive with curiosity, a heart committed to others, and a future filled with promises.

So please join me in congratulating the 2026 recipient of the Richar Lee Featherstone Endowed Prize, Kaylin Casper.

Good.

Thanks for allowing us to share that moment, Kaylin.

Thank you to Vice Provost Largent.

And congratulations again to Kaylin and her family.

Students who participated in fulfill the requirements of the Honors Colleg by completing enriched programs.

This study are identified by graduating with honors College distinction.

These graduates wear a white colla stole with the HC designation.

All students who are graduating as members of the Honors College.

Please stand if you are able to be recognized.

University High Honor is awarded to students who attained grade.

Poin average is between 3.98 and 4.0, and university honors awarded to students who have earned grade point averages between 3.88 and 3.97.

We are nothing, if not precise, in the College of Social Science and here at MSU.

These honors are designated by the gold cord added to the academic costumer regalia.

While all students who are graduating with honor and high honor please stand and remain standin if you're able to be recognized.

Thank you for showing up to our classes and doing your very best.

At this time, we commend and congratulate the student representatives on the Senior Class Council for outstanding contributions to the senior class in the University community.

Well, members of the senior Class Council, please stand or remain standing if you're able.

As your name is called.

We have a game for the audience.

Which major do you think will have member from the senior Class council?

Keep that in your hea and we'll see if you're right.

Jalen Smith, vice president from the Department of Political Science, will you please stand?

And Katherine Harding, as MSU president from the Department of Political Science, will you please rise and remain standing?

Congratulations.

We have lots of people to thank.

In this time.

We'd like to thank the student representatives of the Dean's Student Advisory Council for their outstanding contributions to the college of Social Science.

Will the members of the Dean's Student Advisory Council please stand?

If you are able?

Please join me in recognizin these graduating representatives of the Dean's Student Advisory Council.

And we would also like to congratulate Malia Williams of the School of Social Work, who was selected as the bear in our career fo the College of Social Science.

Congratulations.

Go social work.

Here we are today at commencement, and this affords us an opportunity to receive some wisdo from award winning individuals.

It is my pleasure now to introduce Jeremy Orr will present our Outstanding Teacher Award.

Jeremy is a Detroit based civi rights and environmental lawyer who works nationally to advance environmental and climate justice on behalf of frontline and historically marginalized communities.

He currently serves as Director of Litigation and Advocacy Partnership at Earth Justice, the nation's premier public interes environmental law organization, where he leads community centered legal strategies and long term partnershi grounded in justice and equity.

Jeremy is also an adjunc law professor at Michigan State University's Michigan State University's College of Law.

He earned his degrees here at Michigan State, including his bachelor's and master's degre in the College of Social Science and his law degree from the MSU College of Law.

In a 2025, he received the university's Grand Award winner a Grand Award for Young Alumni.

It is my pleasure to introduce you to Jeremy.

It's a pleasure for me to be here today.

On behalf of the alumni of the college.

I congratulate each and every one of you and welcome you to the ranks of College of Social Science alumni.

Each year, the College of Social Science Leadership Council sponsor an award to recognize and honor one of the great teachers within this college.

Professor Stac Dickert-Conlin has been selected for this year's Outstanding Teacher Award.

Will Professor Dickert-Conlin please come to the podium?

Stac Dickert-Conlin is an economics professor who has taught at MSU for 21 years.

She teaches undergraduate classes in microeconomics and integrated social sciences, as well as classes, graduate classes, and government expenditures.

In her classes, she encourages students to think critically about policies and practices in the effects that choices people make.

Policies like minimum wage, in-kind transfers from parents to children, organ donor registration, and flat rate tuition.

ProfessorDickert-Conlin serves as a director of institutional access and Economics department, and this role she works to build a community where everyone encountering the economics department has opportunities to learn and thrive.

Her research focuses on how we, as a society allocate human organs, and how an increase in the supply of organ affects the allocation process.

Her research also considers how programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Social Security affect decisions about marriage and working, and therefore how these programs affect the well-being of recipients.

We are proud to recogniz and present our 2026 Outstanding Teacher Award to Professor Stacy Dickert-Conlin.

Thank you very much, Jeremy.

I absolutely love graduations, and I am honored to be here toda to celebrate the class of 2026.

I love graduations because they're a celebration of your amazing accomplishment of earning a Michigan State University degree.

I also love graduations because they're an occasion to recognize the community of people who helped you to get here to this moment.

Filling the Breslin Center was Spartan green, so a huge shout out to the families and the friends who are like family that supported you.

Hooray to the advisors and faculty, teaching assistants, office staff, and librarians who helped you navigate all the twists and turns of an MSU degree.

Cheers to the dorm res and the ushers in the Izone and the Wharton Center.

The mechanics and the bike shop.

The Beaumont Tower.

Bell ringers.

The Scoopers at the dairy store, the snowplow drivers, the dining hall servers and all the others in your MSU communit who enriched your MSU journey.

In addition to a celebration, graduation marks a major transition that presents yo with a whole new set of choices.

My journey to graduation and the fact that I actually never left school after graduating so that I could keep coming to graduations, started as an elementary school.

When I decided I was going to be a lawyer.

So my first, law career bega as a sixth grader when I secured a part as a criminal lawyer in my school's mock trial.

I got to college on the pre-law track and took the required class in economics.

Before that class, I thought that economics was about the stock market because my high school social studies teacher made us play the stock market for two weeks, where I very wisely invested all my fake money in a single company because I liked its name.

In my college economics class, I really learned what economics is about.

And once I learned and understood what economics was about and how people make choices, and that economics provided a means for asking and answering policy questions that I cared about, like, how do we allocate organs for transplantation?

I made a choice to change my major, and as other social scientists in the room know, the rest is history.

So what choice did you make on your journey to your MSU graduation?

Did you come to MSU from around the world, or around the country, or across the Mackinac Bridge or across Grand River Avenue?

Did you choose to transfer fro another college or university?

Did you choose to take a gap yea or gap year on your MSU journey?

Did you choose to change your major?

Did you choose to avoid Friday classes or 8:30 a.m.

classes at any cost?

You made all those brave choices without knowing how they would turn out.

And as you know the choice choices that you make without knowing how they will turn out can lead to change.

And personally, I don't really like change.

I find it easy to really focus on the costs of change and what I'll be giving up if I choose change.

And 20 years ago, when I visited MSU's campus for the first time, I was fully prepared not to like it.

And without a doubt, I wouldn't have even set foot on campus if the people that I love and respect hadn't encouraged me to do so.

And, I if I didn't listen and if I didn't visit, I wouldn't have learned how much my amazing MSU home would be for me.

I wouldn't have had the pleasure of teaching you and learning from you.

In classes like I.S.

205 Big Ideas in Social Science or economics classes her in East Lansing and in London.

And I wouldn't have had the pleasure of following alumni who came before you into their lives after MSU.

I wouldn't have had the pleasure of running my three and a half mile route through campus early every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, entering campus near Brody, waving to Sparty on my way b as I turned along the red cedar, towards Wells Hall taking the left over the bridge by the rapids, pushing myself up the hill at Beaumont Tower and jogging past the MSU Union towards home.

But once a year, on Saint Patrick's Day, I choose to make a choice to change my running schedule because I learned that a shocking number of you Spartans will be outside at 6:30 a.m.

in freezing weather.

Outside the Irish pub, and you will cheer me on as I run by teaching me that Spartans have each other's back.

So whether you embrace chang or approach it with trepidation, as I do, as yo step into your next adventure, use your degree in anthropology, in criminal justice, in geography and spatial sciences, in history, in human development and family studies, in human relations and labor relations, human resources and labor relations in interdisciplinary studies and global and international Studies in political Science, in psychology in Social work.

We all write in sociology.

Did I skip economics?

No.

Did I economics.

You get to choose.

All right.

In case I did, I tried to get everyone.

All right.

Use your degree, whatever it's in.

And use your Spartan experience along with that degree to keep listening and keep learning and making choices that make you happy.

Choices that challenge you to stay engaged, and choices that keep you surrounde by people who will cheer you on.

Even at 630 in the morning if your choices don't work out along the way you planned.

Make a choice to change.

I did.

Don't hire me as your criminal lawyer or your financial advisor.

Your MSU community, including all those people who helped you arriv at this graduation celebration.

And the more than a half a million Spartan alumni are cheering you on.

You did it.

And I am so very proud of you.

Now go make choices and enjoy the adventure.

Congratulations, class of 2026 and go green.

Thanks, Stacey.

And congratulations.

It is our traditio in the College of Social Science for the seniors of the Dean's Student Advisory Council to select one of our graduating seniors in the College of Social Science to give a brief address.

This year's Colleg of Social Science senior speaker is Jaida Gouldbourne.

Jaida has many fans, and she is graduating toda with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice with a minor in peace and Justice Studies.

After graduation Jadia plans to pursue a career within the criminal justice system with the long term goal of attending law school.

She aspires to become a prosecutor or to work within the government, where she can contribute to advancing fairness and equity in the justice system.

Through her academic work and research, Jaida has developed a strong passion for addressing systematic inequalities and advocating for meaningful reform.

Please join me in welcoming Jaida Gouldbourne.

Good afternoon everyone.

When I arrived at Michigan State University, I was terrified.

The kind of fear that lies in your ches and whispers, do I belong here?

Is not the kind that you can easily describe.

Can I do this?

Am I going to make it?

I had already discovered how fleeting life could be.

Long befor I stepped foot on this campus.

So I took that worry with me.

After my mother died of leukemia when I was seven years old, I realized that resilience was a need rather than an option.

Even so, nothing can prepare you for whether your voice truly matters on a campus this large.

This histori and this full of possibilities.

Not only did Michigan State provide me with an education, but it also allowed me to discover my voice.

I discovered through communities, classrooms, and discussions that being a leader is not about being fearless.

It is about showing up anyway.

It involve making significant investments in the things that are important.

Even if you are not sure of yourself.

And it is about not suppressing your calling, but letting it be shaped by challenges.

I have dedicated mysel to research and justice centered work at MSU that spoke to me on a deep level.

I secured a research position under the history departments professor Walter Hawthorne with enslaved.org, a digital database dedicated to documenting and restoring the identity of enslaved people across the Atlantic worlds.

I helped with the transcription and analysis of archival document into a new, searchable database from Jamaica's Amity Hall plantation of the 1700s.

This document had sat unopene in the New York Public Library for more than 200 years.

No other researcher had ever completed the transcription of those materials.

I took deep pride in restoring the identities of these people to our knowledge of the past.

And I was honored to receive a first place award at MSU's University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum.

That work required patience, care, and integrity.

And it built up my self belie and posed challenging questions.

In fact, I often asked myself how someone who had once doubted herself so deeply could stand confidently, present this research.

The answer was never just me.

It was the people who invested in me because I invested in them.

Faculty members who entrusted me with their life's work.

Mentors who trusted me with history that mattered.

A university that funded my curiosity and rewarded my commitment.

I learned at MSU that when you work hard in good faith and care deeply about what others care about, that investment is returned sometimes in ways that you never imagined.

That same commitment brought me a recommendation to Professor Matt Lassite of the University of Michigan, a founder of what is called the Castle State Project, where I studied and digitized historical records and incarceration statistics relating to prison and prison policy in Michigan in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The idea is to tell the story of what led to the massive growt in Michigan's prison population, and how punishment systems impact real individuals.

As my undergraduate journey draws to a close, I have reflecte not only on my accomplishments, but also how Michigan State has recognized and rewarded my dedication, hard work, and good faith.

In actuality, MSU helped me become who I was destine to be by meeting me where I was.

This university showe to me that purpose is something you built brick by brick, using perseverance, selflessness, and faith in something greater than yourself.

It taught me that our greatest work often emerges from our deepest pain, and that when we align our values with our actions, our work becomes more than an obligation.

It becomes a calling to my fellow graduates.

If you are sitting here today considering if your voice, your story, or your battle is enough, please know that it is.

Everything you went through was important.

You were ready for this moment because of every late night uncertainty and decision you made to keep going.

As we leave Michigan State, let us not only take with us our degrees, but ou responsibility to act honorably.

Rise with a purpos and make significant investments in the people and causes that are important.

Because when we do, we contribute to the creation of a more compassionate, just, and hopeful world.

In addition to changing our own lives.

Congratulations, class of 2026.

We are.

Congratulations, class of 2026.

We are evidence that a challenge can turn into a calling, and that purpos will always find its way forward if it is pursued with courage and faith.

Congratulations.

Thanks, Jaida.

That was very inspiring and just wonderful.

Also, congratulations to Doctor Dickert-Conlin.

Both of you represent the College of Social Science with the highest distinction.

Now comes my favorite part of the entire ceremony.

I'm first going to invite Doctor Emily Durbin, associat dean of Undergraduate Studies, to introduce the chairpersons and directors of the college academic units.

And this will then be a chance for you and graduate to participate in our ceremony.

Doctor Durbin.

Thank you.

Dean Donnellan.

As I introduce the chairpersons and directors of the college, they will present the graduates in their units who have completed the program requirements for their respective degrees.

The candidates for degrees and each major will rise as they're introduced and able and remain standing.

Once all the majors have been presented, the baccalaureate degrees will be conferred.

Professor Andrea Louie, chairperson of the Department of Anthropology.

Will the graduates of anthropology please rise and remain standing if able?

Dean Donnellan, on behalf of the faculty of the Department of Anthropology, I present my students who advance understanding of human, biological and cultural variation in both the past and the present as candidates to receive their degrees.

Doctor Steven Chermak, director of the School of Criminal Justice.

That was for ?

Will the amazing superheroes from the Schoo of Criminal Justice, the oldest criminal justice degree program in the universe.

Please rise and remain standing if you're able.

Dean Donnellan, associate Dean Durbin, on behalf of our faculty, our advisors, and our staff, I present these extraordinary candidates for their degrees.

They are ready to go off into the world and fight for truth and justice.

They now understand that with great intellectual power comes great responsibility, and that in the end, it is inevitable that love, compassion, empathy and working with others will save the world and conquer evil.

Doctor Scott Imberman, chairperso of the Department of Economics.

Will the graduates in economics please rise and remain standing?

If you are able?

Hello?

Dean Donnellan, on behalf of the facult of the Department of Economics, I present scarce and highly sought after candidates whose human capita has been significantly enhanced over the past few years, and whose market value as appreciating accordingly to receive their degrees.

Doctor Ashton Shortridge, chairperson of the Department of Geography, Environment and Spatial Sciences.

Will the graduate of the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences please rise?

Your mastery of geography wil serve you well on your personal and professional journeys across our amazing planet.

Dean Donnellan, on behalf of the faculty, I present these Spartan geograph Doctor Michael Stamm, chairperson of the Department of History, one of the extraordinary graduates in history.

Please rise and remain standing if you are able.

Congratulations to each of you on your accomplishment.

As students and teachers.

You exemplify actual human intelligence, not artificial intelligence.

You've done a wonderful thing in completing your studies and improving yourself.

Experts on and guardians of honest understandings of the past.

Well done.

Dean Donnellan, On behalf of the faculty of the Department of History, I present these amazing candidates to receive their degrees.

Doctor Andrea Wittenborn, chairperson of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies.

Will the purpose driven Graduate and Huma Development and Family Studies, the oldest partner in the college?

Please rise and remain standing.

Dean Donnellan.

Graduates have united scienc and compassion to improve lives, strengthen families and transform communities.

On behalf of the faculty of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, I present these candidates to receive their degrees.

Doctor Michelle Kaminski, associate director for the School of Huma Resources and Labor Relations.

Will the graduates and human resources and labor relations please stand if you are able and remain standing?

Dean, on behalf of the faculty of the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, I present these outstanding candidates to receive their degrees.

They understand both the human and the economic impact of every decision they make, and they are ready to leav with integrity to advance equity and to make the workplace better for us all.

Doctor Brandy Ellison, director for the center for Integrative Studies.

Will the graduates in interdisciplinary studies and Global and International Studies please rise and remain standing?

If you are able.

Looking good.

We're so proud of your amazing work and excited for your next adventures.

We want to thank you for making our jobs rewarding and more fun, and making our future a little bit brighter.

Dean Donnellan, on behalf of the faculty of the College, I present these stellar candidates from the programs in the center for Integrative Studies to receive their degrees.

Doctor Jeffrey Conroy-Krutz, interim chairperson of the Department of Political Science.

For the graduates from political science, please rise.

Dean Donnellan, on behalf of the faculty of the Department of Political Science, who, may I say are low key icons I present to you these graduates the future goats of global diplomacy solicitors who will slay municipal managers with main character energy orators with aura, and legislators who will lock in.

For their duly earned degrees.

Docto Kevin Ford, interim chairperson of the Department of Psychology.

And it's an honor and a pleasure to represent the Department of Psycholog on behalf of the faculty, staff and our incredible undergraduate advisors.

Many of them are here today.

Will the graduate in psychology, the largest major in the College of Science and Science.

Please rise and remain standing.

Dean Donnellan and half of the facult in the Department of Psychology.

I present these candidates to receive their degrees.

Doctor Carrie Moylan, director of the School of Social Work.

Will the graduates in suppor please rise and remain standing?

If you are able.

Dean Donnellan, on behalf of the faculty of the School of Social Work, I present these advocacy oriented, brilliantly resourceful, hope filled, community transforming, deeply dedicated, fearless, heart centered, justice driven, compassionate, caring and world changing candidates to receive their degrees.

Doctor Carla Pfeffer, chairperson of the Department of Sociology.

Will be graduates in sociology whose conscientiousness and rigorous training in math methods and ethics will never be replaced by generative AI.

Please rise and remain standing as you're able.

Dean Donnellan, on behalf of the facult of the Department of Sociology, I present these critically thinking working towards social justice community engaged and environmentally conscious candidates to receive their degrees.

As you can tell, we have a very, very large college.

So from the Departments of anthropology all the way to sociology, please rise if you're able, so we can recognize all of you at once.

Let's go.

Everybody, come on up.

If you can.

We have super heroes and advocates, historians and economists, social workers and psychologists, anthropologists are agents of change.

Leaders of the future.

Thank you for doing all the hard work to earn your degrees.

It's my honor with the Honorable Rebecca Bahar-Cook to confer upon you the degrees for which you have been recommended.

With all the rights and distinctions to which they entitle you.

And now, according to custom, you may move your tassels from the right side of your cap to the left.

Congratulations, MSU alumni.

Class of 2026.

All right, everybody.

Congratulations.

You may be seated.

This act that you just did of moving your tassel represents the conclusio of a great achievement in marks the beginning of the next chapter of your lives as Spartan alumni.

It is an achievement worth celebrating.

And we are here today to recognize tha with about 1400 of your closest friends who have completed their degrees.

As I said, we have the largest graduating class of any college on this campus.

So now we're going to take the time to recognize each and every one of you.

And I ask that everyone sticks around so that the first graduate gets the same response is the last graduate.

It is customary at this time for people like me to give pieces of advice to folks like you.

Your parents might get this reference.

But all I ask is tha you be excellent to each other.

And and by doing that let's let's have everybody have the same experience when they get their, diploma.

So I'd like to recognize several individuals who are going to help out Mr.

Jamie Paisley and Doctor Linda Kernohan of WKAR radio, who are going to announce the names as people receive their token diplomas.

We're also grateful for the services.

And Miss Susan Hahayi who provided our real time captioning.

So please again, be considerate, be excellent to each other.

Make sure that we can hear each name as their name is calle as they walk across the stage.

We ask all degree recipients to return to your seats.

Each member here is a member of the Spartan family.

All right.

Let's start this process.

(Conferral of degrees reading graduate names) All right.

Why don't you reach out to the people who stayed and say hi, introduce yourselves, or sticking around with us We really, really appreciate it.

You deserve a round of applause.

All right.

Thank you for showin respect to your fellow Spartans.

It means a lot to them and to their families.

We just have a few things to do to wrap up tonight.

An important part of today's ceremony is to acknowledge all those people who walked along beside you, in some case, carried you, and listened to you and helped you through your journey.

Whoever that is.

So.

Well, everybod who helped you on your journey, please stand u so we can acknowledge the family and friends and support system of our graduates.

Thank you for supporting our students.

I also want to recognize a very critical part of the educational mission.

The essential part i our faculty and academic staff.

So for will all of our wonderful faculty members stand up, will the advisors stand up?

All the staff here at the Breslin Center for sticking around?

Thank you so, so much for making this a special day for our graduates.

All right.

We have one more thing to do.

It involves a song.

So I now invite all of you to join in singing the first stanz of the alma mater, NSU shadows, which you will find in th electronic commencement program.

After the singing, we request that everybody is detoured while we exit, and then you are free to go about your evening.

Be excellent to each other.

You made it.

Class of 26, please rise and sing.

(Singing and performance of MSU Alma Mater) (Music Playing)