(cheerful music) (audience applauding) (cheerful music) (audience applauding) (cheerful music) - Good evening everyone.

Faculty, you may be seated.

I am Glenn Chambers, the Interim Dean, and it is our pleasure to join with one another today to celebrate the graduation of the 14th entering class of the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities.

(audience cheering) That's allowed.

(audience cheering) Let me begin by acknowledging that Michigan State University occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Anishinaabeg.

Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples.

In particular, the university resides on land ceded in the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw.

On behalf of the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, 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 acknowledgement as has become increasingly common, we affirm indigenous sovereignty and the complicated history of the Land Grant University.

Now, let me ask the Class of 2024 if they are able to please rise and turn towards caregivers, parents, family members, either given or chosen and important loved ones.

(audience cheering) It is through the support of these individuals that enable your success.

Next, let me ask the Class of 2024 to remain standing, again if they are able and turn back to towards the main stage to the RCAH Faculty and staff who have guided you on this journey.

As you look on at this group of RCAH leaders, I hope that many memorable thoughts about your time in RCAH come to mind.

Each of these individuals has committed themselves to excellence in undergraduate education and making RCAH the place it is today.

Please join me in thanking them for their support in your respective and collective journey.

(audience cheering) Now, I ask now that you please reserve your applause until all the names have been read.

Platform party, please stand.

RCAH Director of Student Success and Advising, Marissa King.

(audience cheering) Alumni Representative, Aileen Dwyer, Class of 2020.

RCAH Faculty and Attendance, John Aerni-Flessner.

Eric Aronoff.

Steve Baibak.

Guillermo Delgado.

Vincent Delgado.

Tama Hamilton-Wray.

(audience cheering) Laura MacDonald.

David McCarthy.

Cristian Sanchez.

David Sheridan.

Estrella Torrez (audience cheering) And Scot Yoder.

(audience cheering) And I also want to acknowledge Sitara Thobani who unfortunately was unable to attend today.

(audience cheering) Thank you RCAH Faculty, please be seated.

(audience applauding) Graduates, you may also sit down.

Yes, sorry.

I would like to recognize our community partners, RCAH graduate fellows, mentors, friends and supporters who may be in the audience.

I would like to recognize RCAH's Associate Dean, Terese Monberg and our staff members all over there.

(audience cheering) It's Morris Arvoy, Alyssa Briones, Katie Crombe, Marcus Fields.

(audience cheering) Allison Fox.

(audience cheering) Laurie Hollinger.

Andrew Midgley.

(audience cheering) Sydney Tomlinson.

And Rugelio Ramereiz.

(audience cheering) I would also like to thank Corinne Williams, RCAH's Coordinator of Student Engagement and Belonging who planned our ceremony this evening.

I'd also like to thank Andrea Clover and her colleagues for providing the captioning for our ceremony.

I would also like to thank The Wharton Center Staff for hosting us on this important day.

(audience applauding) If able and willing, I'll ask all to please rise for the singing of the (indistinct) banner with soloist Laura-Simone Martin music performance senior accompanied by the MSU Jazz Orchestra II under the direction of Anthony Stanco.

♪ O, say, can you see ♪ ♪ By the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ What so proudly we hailed ♪ ♪ At the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ Whose broad stripes and bright stars ♪ ♪ Through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched ♪ ♪ Were so gallantly streaming ♪ ♪ And the rockets' red glare ♪ ♪ The bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ Gave proof through the night ♪ ♪ That our fag was still there ♪ ♪ O, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ O'er the land of the free ♪ ♪ And the home of the brave ♪ (audience cheering) Thank you, please be seated.

Unfortunately, Trustee Tebay is not able to be with us today but there are some prepared comments that I will read on her behalf.

On behalf of the MSU Board of Trustees, I welcome all the graduates, families, and friends who are with us at this evening'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 represents 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 is that you will always be leaders who 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 administrations, and the MSU trustees are all very proud of you.

Please accept our warmest congratulations and best wishes.

We wish to pay tribute to graduates who not only completed their academic programs successfully, but who have the distinction of having maintained the highest grade point averages in the class, thereby meriting the Board of Trustees Award.

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

Will the students who are present please stand and remain standing as your names are called.

I request that you hold your applause until all are introduced.

Go ahead.

Yeah, you can stand, yes.

Grace Ferencz.

(audience cheering) Mary Fog Lido.

(audience cheering) Morgan Manuszak.

(audience cheering) Audrey Rosier.

(audience cheering) Each of you should be proud of the outstanding academic record that honors you and your university.

On behalf of your classmates, the faculty, the officers and trustees of the university I extend since congratulations and best wishes.

Please join me in applause for the Class of 2024, Board of Trustee Award recipients.

(audience cheering) You may be seated.

I would like to recognize the following students, students who participate in and fulfill the requirements of the Honors College by completing enriched programs of study are identified as graduating with honors college distinction.

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

All students who are graduating as members of the Honors College, please stand and accept our congratulations.

(audience cheering) Thank you, please be seated.

Students who attain a grade point average of 3.95 and higher are awarded University High Honor.

University Honor is awarded to students who have earned grade point averages of 3.81 to 3.94.

These honors are designated by the Gold Court added to the academic robes.

Would all students who are graduating with Honor and with High Honor please stand and accept our congratulations.

(audience cheering) Thank you, please be seated.

All first generation students, please stand and accept our congratulations.

We are so very grateful.

(audience cheering) Thank you, please be seated.

We're so very grateful that you selected Michigan State University and so very proud of your achievements.

In recognition of Michigan State's ongoing commitment to study abroad, I ask all graduates who participated in or are participating in a study abroad program while at MSU to stand so that we may recognize you.

(audience cheering) Thank you, please be seated.

I would like to recognize those students who in addition to their degree in the arts and humanities, are also earning an additional major or second degree.

Would those students please stand.

(audience cheering) Thank you, please be seated.

Community engagement is an important aspect of our students' undergraduate career in RCAH.

All students who have participated in a community engagement activity during their education in RCAH please stand.

(audience cheering) - That should be everybody.

- Thank you, please be seated.

I would now like to introduce Mason Reinhardt, jazz studies and instrumental soloists performing centerpiece composed by Harry Edison and John Hendricks arranged by Chris Johnson for your enjoyment.

(audience applauding) (cheerful music) ♪ The more I'm pretty with you baby ♪ ♪ The more I feel my love increase ♪ ♪ I'm building all my dreams around you ♪ ♪ My happiness will never cease ♪ ♪ But not this any good without you ♪ ♪ 'Cause baby, you're my centerpiece ♪ ♪ I buy a house and garden somewhere ♪ ♪ Along a country road a piece ♪ ♪ A little cottage on the outskirts ♪ ♪ Where we could really find release ♪ ♪ But not this any good with without you ♪ ♪ 'Cause baby you're my centerpiece ♪ ♪ The more I'm with you pretty baby ♪ ♪ The more I feel my love increase ♪ ♪ I'm building all my dreams around you ♪ ♪ My happiness will never cease ♪ ♪ But nothing is any good with you ♪ ♪ 'Cause baby you're my centerpiece ♪ (audience cheering) Thank you.

I would now like to introduce our student performer, Caleb Smith.

(audience cheering) Caleb will be performing an original piece titled, (indistinct) which translates to highs and lows, followed by a Chinese piano piece by Jay Cho.

(audience cheering) (lighthearted piano music) (audience cheering) (lighthearted music) (audience cheering) Thank you Caleb.

I would now like to introduce our alumni speaker, Aileen Dwyer.

After graduating from RCAH in 2020, during the pandemic, Aileen moved to Minneapolis for an AmeriCorps position at a Twin Cities library working with teens and providing maker space and media focus programming.

After working in that role for two years, she started working at the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board.

She currently helps run community creative media spaces that offer creative technology... Creative technology programming for Minneapolis Youth.

Aileen plans and runs afterschool and summer programs, teaching skills like filmmaking, graphic design, broadcasting, 3D printing, and more.

Welcome Aileen.

(audience cheering) - Thank you Dean Chambers.

Also, if I knew they were gonna read my bio verbatim, I would've made it shorter, but thank you all for being here tonight.

It's an honor to be here.

As an alumna of this program, I was so excited to be invited back to stand with you today.

It's great to be back on campus with the RCAH community, with friends, family, esteemed arc of faculty and staff, and most importantly, with the 2024 RCAH graduating class.

We're all here tonight to celebrate your accomplishments.

I vividly remember the swirl of achievement, excitement, and uncertainty that I felt on my own graduation day that looked quite a bit different than all of this.

As a May, 2020 graduate, I celebrated the culmination of my collegiate experience from my college department watching a prerecorded YouTube video.

Don't get me wrong, it was very touching and I did cry, but I can't express how honored I was to be the alumni speaker at this year's commencement and have the opportunity to be part of a more traditional graduation.

I stand here today filled with pride and admiration for each and every one of you who has reached this incredible milestone, and I'm glad we can gather in-person to celebrate all that you have achieved.

After long days and nights studying, writing countless essays and discussion posts, attending lectures, taking exams, and working tirelessly on creative and academic projects, it has all led you here to this moment waiting to walk across this stage and accept your diploma, but today is just one of many experiences that make up your time at MSU.

Each of your journeys were different.

There were some common threads that connect you all.

Your Spartans, you learned about transculturation and you got really used to your lives being upended by massive world changing events.

These last couple of years were unlike any other time in history and being college students through it all has shaped you in probably more ways than you'll ever know.

But what stays with you after you leave this campus are the connections you've cultivated and the choices you've made about your educational journey.

All of your amazing and diverse interests prepare you.

There's a spider, I'm sorry.

Woo.

It just fell outta the sky, so sorry.

Okay, well something had to go wrong.

Okay.

All of your amazing and diverse interests prepare you for so many future possibilities.

For me, what that looked like was turning my interest in film and design into a passion for creative art and technology instruction.

I loved working in language and media center during my time in RCAH and will always be thankful to Professor Sheridan and Marcus Fields for cultivating that special space.

(audience applauding) So when it came time to look for a job after college, putting aside the challenges of entering the working world during the midst of a global shutdown, the question that guided me was, how can I keep doing what I loved doing so much while I was here in RCAH?

Whether it's in your work or free time, I urge all of you to seek environments that not only fit your goals, but also your interest, values and passions.

I'm lucky that each day at work I get to go into my own version of the LMC, helping kids find their own creative voice.

I finally feel like I've answered the question of what's next and that answer wouldn't be the same without RCAH.

So now I want you all to think back and remember the first time you stepped on MSU's Campus.

That's what's next.

You get to do that all over again.

The nerves, the wondering, the changes, the next chapter of your lives will be filled with uncertainties, but I promise that you already have the skills and strength of character to push through.

As students whose college experiences was expected by a number of events outside of your control, you have cultivated resilience in the words of the poet Maya Angelou, "You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated."

In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

For me, my personal definition of resilience is finding comfort in the uncomfortable however you can.

Make sure to take care of yourselves in the coming months.

Going through change is hard, but it's how we all grow.

Embrace your defeats as opportunities for growth, struggles as catalysts for change and channel resilience as the guiding force that will carry you forward.

So now I have the privilege of hindsight and unfortunately that's not something I can gift to all of you.

I can give you all the advice and affirmations under the sun, but I remember being where you are now.

When everyone was telling me about all the possibilities that were ahead of me and that everything would be okay, I was just worrying about finding a job, wondering if I wanted to go to grad school and figuring out where I was gonna live.

And those questions are important and they seem massive, but they're also temporary and will be answered, I promise.

So I want you to forge ahead, make connections, and know that life has a way of working out.

And remember that you are not alone.

You join a vast network of alumni who have walked the same path before you, who have faced their own struggles and triumphs, and you stand ready to offer support as you embark on this next chapter of your lives.

So, to the graduating class of 2024, I offered this advice, embrace the challenges that lie ahead with courage and determination.

Trust in your abilities, lean on your community and never lose sight of the resilience that lies within you.

And above all, never forget the power you hold to shape the world around you for the better.

Thank you.

(audience applauding) - Thank you, Aileen.

At this time, Associate Professor Scott Yoder will announce the names of the graduates as they receive their diplomas.

I ask that the new graduates be escorted to the platform.

Students and audience, please remain seated.

We ask the audience to be considerate and applauding your graduates as names are read.

We want each graduate's name to be heard.

Faculty please stand.

- I got my glasses.

Yeah.

Bianca Louisse Savianto Alagon.

(audience applauding) Caleb Lee Smith.

(audience applauding) McKayla Michelle Martin.

(audience applauding) Adriana Monet Dent.

(audience applauding) Aaron Lee Savage.

(audience applauding) Ashley Lau.

(audience applauding) Elisa Hakeem.

(audience applauding) - [Man] You put in that work.

(audience applauding) - Mary Eliza Harris Fogg-Liedel.

(audience applauding) Jess Mariela Metheny Whitmer.

(audience applauding) Monique Danielle Jackson.

(audience applauding) Nicholas Joseph.

(audience applauding) Carrington Stubblefield.

(audience applauding) Alexandra Nunez Rodriguez.

(audience applauding) David O'Reilly Bennett.

(audience applauding) Grace Lanaya Feather.

(audience applauding) Anna Theresa Lablo.

(audience applauding) Abigail Rose Grantham.

(audience applauding) Audrey Rose Rauscher.

(audience applauding) Alante Barry.

(audience applauding) Liliana Rose Weinraub.

(audience applauding) Quill Blankenship.

(audience applauding) Kylie Slavin.

(audience applauding) Addie Elizabeth Roman.

(audience applauding) Kathleen Cecilia Agan Mahoney.

(audience applauding) Natalia Khoshnam.

(audience applauding) Delta Waldburger.

(audience applauding) Abrielle Hope Briske.

(audience applauding) Ren Holler.

(audience applauding) Audrey Rosier.

(audience applauding) Mataya Serenity Sipe.

(audience applauding) Jackson (indistinct) (audience applauding) Lillian Davis.

(audience applauding) Morgan Manuszak.

(audience applauding) Mary Hedges.

(audience applauding) Amethyst Russelli.

(audience applauding) Emma Jane Newman.

(audience applauding) Andrew Bracken.

(audience applauding) M Fisher.

(audience applauding) Angela Demith.

(audience applauding) Ella Volk.

(audience applauding) - On behalf of the President who has delegated the authority of the State of Michigan vested in the board of trustees, I confer upon all of you the degrees for which you have been recommended with all the rights and distinctions to which they entitle you.

According to custom you may now move your tassels from the right side of your caps to the left.

Congratulations MSU alumni.

(audience applauding) This act represents the conclusion of a great achievement and marks the beginning of a lifetime of dedicated service to your community.

It is an achievement worthy of celebration and we are here this evening to celebrate the fact that you are now joining over 500 scholars, artists, and advocates who have completed the academic program in the Residential College of the Arts and Humanities.

Faculty, please be seated.

(audience applauding) Allow me to close this evening by reminding us that we are here to honor the accomplishments of our graduating students as well as recognize all those who made their accomplishments possible in this moment.

I'm drawn to the words and actions of Dr. Grace Lee Boggs, the brilliant Detroit based activist who passed away at the age of 100 in 2015.

Grace Lee Boggs reminds us that we are beginning to understand that the world is always being made fresh and never finished.

That activism can be the journey rather than the arrival.

That structure struggle, I'm sorry, doesn't always have to be confrontational, but can take the form of reaching out to find common ground with the many others in society.

As you transition into the next phase of your journey remember, as Dr. Boggs reminds us that you play an active role in building this new world and just as the world is never finished, so too will you always be learning.

Your journey may likewise change courses.

I hope that your time in RCAH was but a small moment on our collective and shared journey to make a better and more just world.

We are confident that as you walk out of the Wharton Center this evening, you will transform the world.

I now invite all to rise and sing the alma mater followed by the MSU Fight song.

Audience, please remain at your seats until all graduates have recessed and join us for refreshments afterwards.

(gentle music) ♪ MSU we love the shadows ♪ ♪ When twilight silence falls ♪ ♪ Flashing deep and softly paling ♪ ♪ O'er ivy covered halls ♪ ♪ Beneath the pines we'll gather ♪ ♪ To give our faith so true ♪ ♪ Sing our love for Alma Mater ♪ ♪ And thy praises MSU ♪ (playful music) - A start of (indistinct) ♪ Fight, fight ♪ ♪ Rah, ream, fight ♪ ♪ Victory for MSU ♪ ♪ Fight, fight ♪ ♪ Fight, fight ♪ ♪ Rah, ream, fight ♪ ♪ Fight, fight, fight, fight ♪ (audience applauding)