(Music Playing) Welcome, everybody.

Let's get our lungs warmed up with a big old cheer.

Woo!

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Kendra Spence Cheruvelil.

I use she her pronouns.

And I am the dean of Lyman Briggs College.

Before I begin my remarks, I would like to acknowledge the land on which we live, work, and learn.

We collectively acknowledg that Michigan State University occupie the ancestral, the traditional, and the contemporary lands of Anishinaabeg Three fires, Confederacy of Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi peoples.

In particular, the university resides resides on land that was seated in the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw.

We recognize, support and advocate for the sovereignty of Michigan's 12 federally recognized Indian nations for historic indigenous communities in Michigan, for indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and for those who are forcibly removed from their homelands.

By offering this land acknowledgment, we affirm indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold Michigan State University more accountable to the needs of American Indian and Indigenous people.

Today we bring together our graduates, along with their family and friends and loved ones, to honor your accomplishments.

That's right.

As we begin to celebrate your accomplishments, let us pause her for a moment of silence to honor all of those who have enriched our lives and cannot be with us here today.

Thank you.

We are here today to the.

To bestow the baccalaureat degree on 340 spring and summer graduates in the Lyman Briggs College, class of 2025.

And let us join together here on the banks of the Red Cedar in spring, in a seaso of renewal and fresh beginnings.

To share stories, to support and uplift each other, and to celebrate the curiosity, perseverance and success of our graduates.

As we honor this important moment in the lives of our graduates and their family members, I especially like to thank the other Briggs and MSU alumni who have who are here in the audience and those who volunteered with us today, and to the family and friends who have traveled to be here or are watching from afar.

Welcome and thank you.

Briggs's you have come so far.

A few short years ago, you enrolled in Lyman Briggs College.

Full of interest and curiosity about science.

Some of you had grand plans about your life, and others were unsure what the future might hold.

The last few years tested you in ways you never expected.

Long nights, har choices, evolving friendships, and moments when the path ahead felt anything but clear.

You navigated academic pressures, personal growth, and the uncertaint of a constantly changing world.

Through it all, you adapted.

You persisted, and you found your footing.

The difficult times weren't detours.

They were the terrain of transformation.

As a student, you took foundational science, math, and writing courses through our small, dedicated college.

Your faculty and advisors knew you by your names.

You went to classes with students who lived down the hall, and you formed study groups.

Even more importantly you met people who are different from you.

People who helped you understand others perspectives and experiences.

This community helped the world feel a little smaller, even as your world was expanding.

As you progress through your programs.

You grew as a scientis through your classes and labs, hour and hours and hours of studying.

Your research projects, your jobs, your volunteering, your student clubs and especially your friendships.

You helped recruit students to Lyman Briggs.

You supported first year birdhouses as mentors.

You helped your fellow students as peer learning assistants, and you gave awar winning research presentations.

Many of you engaged in servic within your communities and took leadership opportunities across this world class university.

You even helped MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz, who is here celebrating with us today.

Name his official ice cream flavor during his first visit to Lyman Briggs.

We've heard that Presidential Gas station is a good one.

You leave Lyman Briggs College today empowered with a deeper understanding of scientific fields and how they intersect, and a broader perspective of the sciences and their diverse human, social, and global contexts.

This world needs you.

Briggs's use your courage your creativity, your curiosity, and your compassio to continue making a difference.

We cannot wait to learn about what you do next.

Once a Briggsy always a Briggsy.

Congratulations.

At this time, I'd like to also welcome and thank Trustee Rebecca Baher-Cook, who is here celebrating with us today, and invite her to the podium.

Hi, everybody.

Give me one second to make sure I have what I need.

Thank you very much.

Dean.

Dean Cheruvelil.. Let me try it again.

I'm nervous now that I started and had to stop.

So bear with me.

Cheruvelil.

Thank you very much.

On behalf of the MSU Board of Trustees, I welcome all of the graduates, family and friends who are here with us today at today's undergraduate commencement.

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

Today's ceremony represent the culmination of discipline, intellectual work, and creative imagination.

Certainly no small accomplishment for many of you and your families here today.

The sacrifices have been long and great.

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

Our wish i that you will always be leaders who generous, generous, gender, generously use your intelligence and your knowledge to improve the quality of life for your community.

To advance the common good, and to renew hope in the human spirit.

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

Please accept our warmest congratulations and best wishes.

At this time, I ask everyone please rise if you are able for the singing of America the Beautiful performed by the MSU Jazz Orchestra two under the direction of Anthony Stanko and soloist Eleerna Corey Vea.

O beautiful for spacious skies For amber waves of grain For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain America America God shed His grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea.

Please be seated.

It is now my absolute pleasure to introduce the Lyman Briggs, senior class speaker.

Joseph Kesto.

Joseph.

Joseph is a graduate of International Academy East Campus in Troy, Michigan, and will be graduating with a degree in neuroscience with a concentration in cognitive science.

His studies also include not one, not two, but three minors in public health and epidemiology cognitive science and bioethics.

Please welcome your fellow graduate, Joseph Kesto.

You got it right here.

Good afternoon, everyone, and a special welcome to my fellow Briggies.

in the stadium.

We made it, y'all.

And.

Hi, Mom and dad.

Wherever y'all are in the audience.

we actually did it.

We survived those impossible genetics and microbiology exams from buffers that gave us emotional instability to kinetics that never seeme to speed up our GPA to memory.

Memorizing the Krebs cycle like it wa our Social Security number and and let's not forget organic chemistry, aka the Hunger Games of pre-med and physiology, where the only thing harder than the conten was pronouncing half the terms.

Congratulations to us.

Degrees in hand, trauma and memory.

I know we all feel overwhelmed today and read for our daily nap and for lunch.

So let's do a little bit of a roll call to wake us up.

If you've ever pulled an all nighter in the library, I want you to clap.

If you once told yourself I'll just risk parking here for a second, only to find a ticket on your car after class.

I want to hear you make some noise.

P.S.

I had a total of 13 tickets throughout my college career.

Sorry, dad.

Make some noise if you got me beat.

And if you've ever.

If you've somehow pulled off a group project at the last minute and got an A, which you still don't know how you did it.

I want to hear you make noise again.

And of course, to really make sure everyone's awake.

Go green.

Go white.

Thank you all for being here to celebrate with us today.

I want to start off by sharing a little bit of my own story.

I'm a first generation Arab American, the first in my family not only to go to college, but even to finish middle school and high school.

I remember thinking, I can't feel my entire family's counting on me.

I also felt so small, like I didn't belong.

I think many of us here relate to that feeling of being watched, of being under extra scrutiny because the stakes were just that high.

Every time school started to feel manageable, life threw something new at me.

And I know I'm not alone in this.

For me, one of those expected turn came on February 13th of 2023, when we lost several of our fellow Spartans Ariana, Brian and Alexandria.

That day changed everything.

I never though I'd become an advocate for gun violence prevention.

I never thought I'd be organizing a vigil for my classmates.

Yet here I stand, giving a speech I never imagined giving.

Realizing just how strong we become when circumstances push us to at.

And let's talk about another challenge that's nea and dear to many of our hearts.

The mCAT, Pat Duquette, GRE, or what are 3 to 4 letters you chose to put yourself through?

I'll be honest, y'all.

I took it and it was a disaster.

I cried, questioning my entire career path and thought my life was over.

But a professor her at MSU and Lyman Briggs told me, you acknowledge the setback.

Accept it and keep pushing.

So I kept pushing.

Despite my less than ideal score, I still ended up with six medical school interviews.

A bad test day or any failure doesn't have to be the end of the road, no matter the challenge.

What matter most is how we respond and grow.

We have.

We each have the power to transform obstacles and catalyst for change, for ourselves and for our communities.

If we keep going, keep learning, and keep leaning on each other, there's no limits to what we can do.

I've witnessed this amongs ourselves time and time again.

Some of you overcame financial struggles.

Other navigated family responsibility or mental health struggles.

Yet here we all are.

Graduates ready to take on the world.

And while the road ahead isn't always clear, we carry the lessons we learn from these halls, labs and libraries.

Empathy, resilience and a willingness to stand up for what matters most.

Class of 2025.

Let's promise ourselves we'll keep taking these lessons forward.

We'll remain curious.

We'll stay connected with our support systems, and we'll continue turning obstacle into opportunities for growth.

Never allow a fear of failure to paralyze you.

Use it instead as motivation to reach new height you never thought were possible.

Congratulations to us all.

May we celebrate not just this milestone, but the challenges that shaped us to become the people we are today.

Thank you and let's enjoy every moment of this day together.

And to my Spartans sitting here, I cannot wait to see what you go out and do in the world.

One last time.

Go green.

Go white.

Just kidding.

I know it won't be the last time we saw out there.

Go green.

Go white.

Thank you, Joseph for sharing your story with us.

I know that your family is so very proud of you.

Just as we are at this time.

Please enjoy a performance of Accentuate the Positive by MSU Jazz Orchestra two.

Under the direction of Anthony Stanko.

(Music Playing) Gather around me, everybody gather around me while I preach some feel a sermon coming on here.

The topic will be sin.

And that's what I'm a kin.

If you want to hear my story, then settle back and just sit tight.

While I start reviewing the attitude of doing right.

You got to accentuate the positive feeling eliminate the negative and latch on to the affirmative.

Don't mess with mister in the.

You gotta spread joy up to the maximum.

Bring bloom down to the man and have faith or pandemonium.

Liable to walk upon a seed.

To illustrate my last remark, Jonah in the whale.

Noah in the ark.

What did they do?

Just when everything looks so dark.

Man, they said, you better.

Accentuate the positive.

Eliminate the negative.

Latch on to the affirmative.

Don't mess with mister in between.

Now.

Don't mess with mister in between.

To illustrate my last remark, Jonah in the whale.

Noah in the ark.

What did they say?Everything.

Everything looks so other dark.

They said you better accentuate the positiv feeling eliminate the negative.

Latch on to the affirmative.

Don't mess with mister in between.

Don't mess with mister in between.

Thank you so much.

Let's have another round for Eleerna.

Thank you.

It is now my honor to introduce LBC alumnus Paraj Mandrekar.

Paraj graduated from Lehman Briggs in 1993 with a degree in microbiolog and public health, and received a master's degree in genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Starting as a research scientist in the Genetic Identity Researc and Development Group at Promega Corporation in 1998 Perez spent 16 years designing and developing technologie for forensic DNA, eight of them as lead scientist for forensic DNA purification projects.

Since 2014, he has been in a senior scientific and technical advising role at Promega Technical Services Group, specialized in DNA purification problems an robotic approaches to the same.

Good morning everyone.

Morning.

Thank you.

Dean.

Cheruvelil.

President Guskiewicz, Trustee Baher-Cook.

Esteemed faculty and staff.

And most importantly, the graduating class of 2025 along with your families.

For the honor of speaking to you today.

Congratulations on reaching the end of this stage of your journey.

The Lyman Briggs curriculum has prepared you with the knowledge and perspectives that will be essential in your future careers.

You have had rich academic experiences.

You have spent many hours in the lab.

If you were an undergraduate learning assistant, I hope that you had the chance to teach some science to your peers.

Maybe even learning as I did, that it's not wise to be in your dorm room the night before an exam.

My journey at Lyman Briggs hinted at some of the things I would later learn in my career.

When I arrived at Holmes Hall, I was a student, trained and mentored by professors older students, and researchers.

As an undergrad to and elected membe of the Student Advisory Council, I found myself as part of a circle of colleagues who each advised and assisted one another in our work and teaching techniques.

We shared what we knew an offered advice to one another.

As teachers and as budding professionals.

In my second year, I criticized the teaching of Professor Gary Westfall on a feedback form.

To my surprise he hired me as an undergraduate teaching assistant.

The following year, that moment last left a lasting impression.

Constructive criticism, when met with openness, can lead to real improvement.

It's a lesson I've carried with me.

In May of 1993, I was standing where you are now.

My college career was behind me, and I was standing on the edge of tomorrow.

I gave one of the studen graduation speeches that year, and encouraged my classmates to go out and find some way to use their scienc to address problems in society.

I'm lucky to say that that's exactly what I've had the chance to do.

It is from this vantage point that I share a few lessons I have learned throughout my career.

After graduate school, I was hired as one of a dozen research and development scientists at Promega Corporation, working on a DNA fingerprinting team.

When I arrived to do the research, I realized that this was one of only two such corporate research teams in the world.

One of the senio scientists, Doctor Alan Trevor, had a side interest in designing DNA purification processes, specifically to solve problems in the field of forensic DNA.

I spent my lunch hours talking to him about his proposed research area and asked apparentl some good scientific questions.

When the company asked him to develop his ideas in that direction he requested me as his research and development scientis to perform the experimentation.

My first piece of advice is to ask as many scientific question as your curiosity can generate.

You never know where you will find your mentors.

My good fortune was that he had come to the company after an academic career, and treated me like a grad student or postdoctoral fellow.

His gamble paid off for me, as I was on the ground floor of a new field that we ended up pioneering together.

Two years later, I was a 31 year old research scientist working on the world's first automatable DNA purification process in forensics.

We developed methods on large robotic instruments to process many samples at a time.

I was working on the extraction of DNA from small dissolved pieces of mouse tissue.

Then the purification process could be performed by a robot that could isolate 88 samples at a time on a robot.

I have a notebook entry to the effect of.

We should be able to isolate DNA from many pieces of tissue.

Should this ever be required?

That was early September 2001.

On September 11th, 2001, we, along with the rest of the world, watched the attacks on the Worl Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In horror.

Within a day.

Our two man research team, me and Alan, were identified as the only research team on the planet that knew how to dissolve tissue and then robotically isolate i with a DNA purification process compatible with th identification of the victims.

Our first briefing from New York indicated that we could expect to identify up to 50,000 individuals from 1 million pieces of tissue.

It was good to have something to do during this crisis, but I remember pushin the horror aside and wondering how I got to be in that situation.

You never know whe and where you will be standing, when the universe will need your skills, your experience, and your imagination.

This crisis underscored what I learned first at Lehman Briggs collaboration, especially in high intensity and large scale research, is essential.

When Allen retired in 2006, I became the lead R&D scientist for projects in forensic DNA purification.

For most of a decade, it was high pressure work with high stakes and high expectations of th products from many stakeholders.

I worried about all sorts of things and even used to leave my cell phone voicemails at work, from home, sometimes in my pajamas, to remind myself of some experimental idea or a reminder to check in with our legal department.

Early on, I was partnered with another scientist that many colleagues warned was difficult.

I discovered, to my delight, that he was the perfect research partner.

He challenged my assumptions and forced me to justify my thinking.

His inherent defensive nature about research and deep caution was a perfect counterweight to my desire to try to move the project forward, and he made some ke observations and recommendations that kept our product from technical pitfalls.

My best research was done side by side with his colleague, who is still a great professional critic and a very good friend.

My second piece of advice to you wherever you g and whatever you do, cultivate a circle of smart, honest critics of your work.

Find peace.

Find people who will force you to defend your hypotheses, and who will look at your problems from a different perspective.

If I ran into a technica hurdle, I would regularly drag my circle out to lunch and then spend my lunch hour scribbling experimental ideas on napkins to make sure that I had covered all of the possibilities.

When I returned to my desk, having your colleague knocked down a flawed data interpretation within the safety of a corporate R&D department is always preferable to a design flaw being found by your customer.

This is especially true if your customer presents data from your product in a court of law.

Cultivate a circle of colleagues around yourself who will be merciless with your pet theories, and will push you to think through every move.

Eventually, you may go out into the world and be considered an expert in your field.

You will be widely praised for your skills and your accomplishments.

People will defer to you.

Your experience and years of prominence in the field.

I'm not going to lie.

It can feel great to be treated this way.

Yet you can be in danger of buying your own hype, and it can go to your head.

I have seen large multimillion dollar researc projects completely fall apart because senior scientists chose not to heed the advice or ideas of more junior scientists.

Even worse than this, I have seen honest critics fall silent since their advic isn't going to be listened to.

If you want to continue t be successful in the sciences, cultivate your own humility.

If it helps, remember that you didn't get to this point only by yourself.

You had teachers, colleagues, mentors, family members, and your circle who all contributed to the work that you did.

Remember that no matter what great things people may say about you, your most beautiful theory can still be killed by a single ugly fact, and that facts may come to yo from the most junior scientist who was just doing the experiment that he or she was asked to do.

My late father was a professor here at Michigan State.

He was a probability theoris in the MSU statistics department for almost 53 years.

It is impossible to grow up i that household and not realize that some part of my succes was a matter of chance of luck.

I have been at several point in my career at the right time and place, and just done what I was trained to do.

And this reminds m that the scientists around me, who may not have the same level of acclaim, have just as much right to make observations and provide facts as I do.

In humility, assume that the next thing out of the mouth of most junio scientists and team members in the room is an observation or experimental result that will scuttle your favorite theory and be ready to shift rapidly to the new paradigm.

The best scientists learn over time how little we truly kno and understand of the universe.

As they search to see how much is out there that is not understood.

In 1992, I was a chair of the Lyman Briggs Student Advisory Council and was a speaker at the convocation marking 25 years of Lyman Briggs College.

I described Lyman Brigg then as a place where you would encounter competition and supporters in your education.

One arm stood opposed to yo and another arm supporting you, and a little bit of music and magic, and you find yourself dancing.

I still hold to that metapho for the Lyman Briggs experience.

My experience of living and breathing science with my peers in a rigorous, competitive academic community for years at a time was great training for what lay ahead in my career.

I hope it is the same for you whether you go to professional school, graduate schoo or into the workforce from here.

I wish you all great careers and even greater lives.

You will always be part of this community.

We alumni are here for you just as others were here for us.

Now it is time to go forth and achieve.

Or as the date suggests, May the 4th be with you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Hello.

My name is Paola Leon.

I use she her pronouns and I am the associate dean for academic Innovation and Inclusive Excellence.

It is my honor to recognize outstanding seniors for their contributions to ou residential college community.

This awards recognize students who stand out for academic achievement, leadership and extracurricular involvement.

All students receiving this awards were nominated by their peers and faculty.

When I call your name, please join me and President Guskiewicz at the podium to receive your award.

The first award is the Lyman Briggs College Academic Excellence Award.

This award is given fo outstanding elastic achievement, contribution to one' field, and leadership potential.

This year award goes to Grace Irving.

Grace is from Columbia, Missouri and is a member of the Honors College, graduating with her degree in genomics and Molecular Genetics.

Her nominator shared that Grace was, simply put, outstanding.

She is an ambitiou and curious learner and a hell herself to an extremely high academic standard.

But I was most struck by her immense generosity to classmates.

Congratulations, Grace.

The next award is the F.B.

Dutton Award.

This award is given for outstanding academic achievement, a contribution to science education, along with active leadership in the community.

And this year's award goes to Joseph Nona.

Josep is from Bingham Hills, Michigan and is earning a degree in human Biology with minors in busines in Pharmacology and Toxicology.

His nominator, shared digestif demonstrated a passion for the human dimensions of his interest in medicine and thoughtfully elevates class discussions.

Congratulations, Joseph.

The final award is the LBC Alumni Association Outstanding Student Award.

This nominee must display exemplary leadership and dedication to student and alumni activities, while earning a high level of academic achievement.

This year's award goes to Atif Chowdhury.

Atif is a member of the Honors College, earning a degree in Human Biology with a minor in business.

His nominator shared that Atif is among the very best LAs I have worke with during my 20 years at MSU.

He tirelessly helps students with their chemistry learning and is well known for his patient, charitable tone towards his students.

Congratulations at UB.

I would also like to recognize two of our graduate who have earned the outstanding senior award from the Senior Class Council.

This awards are presente to graduating seniors who have demonstrated exemplary academic and extracurricular successes and a strong sense of leadership, commitment, and dedication to MSU.

Will Lauren Patrick and Manvir Bumrah please stand if you are able and be recognized as.

Congratulations to all these students under achievements.

I get to catch up.

Hello folks.

My name is Niki Rudolph.

I'm the assistant dea for student success and advising here in the college, and I use she her pronouns.

I have the joy of doing what I like to call the stand up, sit down portion of the evening.

so there we go, right back on it.

It is my pleasur to recognize the remarkable hard work and accomplishments of this graduating class.

Your honors are a testament to the incredible work that you have invested and the amazing support that brought you here.

MSU Honors College is one of the nation's most extensive honors programs, with students graduating from the Honors College.

Wear a white stoo to signify this accomplishment.

Well, the students graduating from the Honors College, please rise if you are able and be recognized.

Thank you.

You may be seated.

The students in Lyman Briggs College are among the most academically distinguished students at Michigan State University.

This year, over 40% of our graduatin class are graduating with honors students in the top 7 to 20% of all MSU students in the graduating class are distinguished as graduating with honors.

The students have earned a cumulative cumulative GPA of 3.89 to 3.97.

These students wear the gold honor cord while the students graduating with honor please rise if you are able to be recognized.

Thank you.

Be seated.

Students in the top 6% of all MSU students graduating are distinguishe as graduating with high honors.

These students have earned a cumulative GPA of 3.98 or higher.

These students also wear the gold honor cord while the students graduating with high honors.

Please stand and be recognized.

Thank you.

You may be seated.

Welcome.

Students graduating with a perfect 4.0 grade point average across all of the courses at MSU.

Receive a special honor and even their own background music.

This is the Board of Trustees award.

This is an incredible achievement attained by only 271 students graduating across the entire university.

51 of those students are graduating today from Lyman Briggs.

And you can see as you see tha their names are on the screen.

But with those student who are earning a perfect 4.0, please stand and be recognized.

I'm at the Oscars and I wil wait to be played off by music.

Have a seat.

This is an incredible achievement as an essential par of the success of Lyman Briggs.

the role of our students play and co-create in a supportive residential and academic community, both in Briggs and across campus.

They welcome prospective and new students.

They support each other in the classroom.

They represent the student voice on college and university committees and raise important questions in our community.

As I announce these leadership roles with these students, please stand if you're able to be recognized and remain standing.

I've got a list, so everyone pay attention.

For those students who served as Briggs Ambassadors, Resident Assistance, intercultural Aids, Peer Mentors, and Peer Support coordinators, members of the Student Advisory Council, or LVC Inc., and Undergraduate Learning Assistance.

Thank you.

And be seated.

Our students balance much more than academics and student leadership.

Well, students who have participated in education a broader way.

Please stand if you're able.

Thank you.

Well, students who have completed competed as a student athlete while at MSU.

Please stand if you are able.

To.

Thank you.

And.

Well, members, well, members of an MSU band or choir, fraternity or sorority or other MSU student organization.

Please stand.

Thank you.

Finally, in recognition of all the different pathways our Briggsies take, we'd like to celebrate all of those graduating today as well as all of you in the audience and all of my stage party.

For those of you who have set family milestones, well, all of you who are the first generation in your family to graduate from college?

Please stand and be recognized.

Thank you to all of you and congratulations.

What an amazing group of graduates.

Am I right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Here comes the really great part.

Right?

We will now present diplomas to the new graduates.

Graduates once you receive your diploma, we ask you to return to your seats to help celebrate each of your fellow Briggs's.

Will the graduate please be escorted to the stage to be recognized?

(Conferral of Degrees, Reading Graduate Names) All right, let's hear it again.

For all those folks.

All right.

Let me take a moment to recognize and thank some of the people who have worked so hard to make this event special for our graduates.

First, thank you to the Lyman Briggs College staff who have dedicated so many hours coordinating and staffing today's celebration.

Oh, thank you also to the Breslin staff, Heather Fin and the university commencement office, infrastructure, planning and facilities, and the MSU police for their hard work in preparation for today's ceremony.

Thank you to Andrea Kleiber, who provided the captionin for our event, and Doctor Linda Kernohan and Jamie Paisley, who read The Graduate names.

Thank you so much, everybody.

Okay, now, I asked the class of 2025 from the Lyman Briggs College to please rise.

Lyman Briggs College could not be what it is today without the dedication, enthusiasm and expertise of our faculty and advising team, many of whom are up here on the stage, these individuals have playe an essential role in providing the education, mentoring and support throughout the years that helped all of those who are celebrate.

We're celebrating today.

Let's share a round of applause as gratitude for their contributions as teachers, advisors, collaborators, and mentors.

Okay, now you're on bleachers, so be careful here, but I'm going to ask the graduating students to turn around to see you family, friends, and loved ones who are gathered here to celebrate you today.

You.

That's right.

We want to thank all of you for supporting these amazing breaks, these and the myriad ways you've done so throughout the years.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Graduates.

Now please face the stage again and remain standing.

At this time, I'd like to invite President Guskiewicz to the podium for the conferral of degrees.

Okay.

Lyman Briggs, class of 2025.

Are you ready?

Are you sure you okay?

By the authority delegated by the state of Michigan.

Vested in the Board of Trustees and delegated to me, I confer upon all of you the degrees for which you have qualified with the rights and distinctions to which they entitle you.

Now, as a symbol of your achievement.

You can now move your tasse from the right side of your cap to the left side of your cap.

This act, this act recognizes a great accomplishment.

So today we honor you and congratulate you.

Go out and change the world.

And as always, go green.

One.

I don't know about all of you, but I get goosebumps during all this, right?

This is amazing.

All right.

This represents the conclusio of a great achievement and marks the beginning of a lifetime of dedicated service.

It is an achievement worthy o celebrating the 340 individuals who have now joined the alumni of Lyman Briggs College.

Remember that phrase once the Briggsy.

Always a Briggys.

That's right.

All right, so we end our celebration today with a university tradition singing the alma mater, MSU shadows.

After singing, we request that our guests and our graduates be seated and remain in their seats until after the recessional for the platform party.

We will all then be greeting you as you come out.

Will everyone please stand as they're able for singing of MSU shadows?

MSU we love thy shadows When twilight silence falls Flushing deep and softly paling Oer ivy covered halls Beneath the pines well gather To give our faith so true Sing our love for Alma Mater And thy praises MSU.

(MSU Fight Song)