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Members of the Class of 2025 became the newest ������Ƶ alumni during the university’s 135^th Commencement Exercises in Schar Center on May 23, joined enthusiastically by faculty, staff, family and friends.

The dual ceremonies were the end of a remarkable journey for the more than 1,400 students, who while still navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We stand in awe of the Class of 2025: resilient, brilliant, bold,” said Rev. Kirstin Boswell, university chaplain and dean of multifaith engagement, during the event’s invocation. “Students who began their college years in the shadow of global disruption, and who now emerge with clarity, compassion and courage.”

Bursting the bubble

The Class of 2025 quickly adjusted to life at ������Ƶ with engaged learning, undergraduate research, study away experiences and internships that expanded their mind. In his “Message of Appreciation” graduate Craig Brandstetter ’25 G’25, said those ������Ƶ Experiences helped to “stretch” his and his classmates’ “������Ƶ bubble.”

“With each class we took, with each conversation that ran longer than expected, with each moment we dared to step beyond what was comfortable, our bubble expanded,” said Brandstetter. “We realized that our bubbles were not just something that contained us, it was a place to teach us.”

Brandstetter earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and a master’s degree in business analytics through , which he describes as one of the biggest stretches of his ������Ƶ bubble.

“As a junior, I found myself in graduate-level classes, surrounded by adults with full-time jobs and families. I still felt like a kid, but in that room, I was treated like someone capable of more,” he said. “And that shift? It taught me that maturity doesn’t come with a degree or a job title, it’s about embracing discomfort, being present and staying open to change.”

While ������Ƶ students stretched their bubble throughout their four years, Brandstetter said, “now is the time for the bubble to pop.”

“Bursting the bubble does not mean losing what was inside it. It means taking everything it has given us,” said Brandstetter. “Years from now, when we look back at these four years, we won’t remember every class, every assignment, every late-night study session. But, we will remember that in this place, we learned how to grow and be ourselves.”

Lucy Horn ’25, a Teaching Fellow who earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, is thankful for the experiences ������Ƶ provided her. Like Brandstetter, ������Ƶ helped to “stretch” her “������Ƶ bubble,” and after graduation, she will be teaching at an American school in El Salvador.

“Having all of these different opportunities, especially through Teaching Fellows, to do things outside of my comfort zone showed me how great it is to push myself out there,” said Horn, who is from Frederick, Maryland.  “I’ve had a love for learning since I was really young. I did a lot of traveling when I was younger and was drawn to learning about culture and history.”

Chase Strawser ’25, who earned a bachelor’s degree in sport management and journalism, says ������Ƶ’s ability to provide multiple opportunities for its students was the reason he chose the university.

“I was touring High Point when a family friend told me to also look at ������Ƶ, came here and fell in love with it,” said Strawser, who will be working as a content assistant for World Lacrosse after graduation. “The biggest thing was the ability to get started right away, and it’s the freshman thing to join all the different clubs, but it was really awesome to get started and be able to do what I love.”

Our ������Ƶ

Graduates across the two ceremonies were inspired by a musical performance of “What a Wonderful World,” performed by Kameron Askew ’25; while alum Wes Durham ’88, an award-winning play-by-play commentator for ESPN and ACC Network, welcomed the Class of 2025 to the alumni “team.” Durham learned about broadcasting while working at ������Ƶ’s WSOE student radio, where he called 150 football and basketball games in four years as an undergraduate.

“Despite the difference in our graduating years, I’m convinced that we are all on the same team: your ������Ƶ and my ������Ƶ is now our ������Ƶ,” said Durham during his address Friday. “Most, if not all, of my professional career has been spent around teams. People who come together in search of accomplishment.”

Durham was joined by his wife, mother, two children and brother, fellow ������Ƶ alum Taylor Durham ’96. In his address, he encouraged the graduates to be good teammates and remember that success is shared.

“There will be a time in the next few years when someone who is in school at ������Ƶ like you, or is a recent grad, is going to reach out,” said Durham. “… You’ll connect, they’ll want to know what it is that you do, and how did you become successful. You’ll find time to talk with them, maybe have coffee … and the only connection you’re going to have is this place. When that happens, and when it happens for me today, I always remember the impact this place had on me.”

Despite the difference in our graduating years, I’m convinced that we are all on the same team: Your ������Ƶ and my ������Ƶ is now our ������Ƶ.

Wes Durham ’88, speaker at ������Ƶ’s 135th Commencement Exercises

Making history

The Class of 2025 included several firsts:

• Twenty-seven students graduated in the inaugural Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. In 2021, ������Ƶ launched both a traditional four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing program and a 16-month accelerated ����Dz���������for those who have already completed a bachelor’s degree. Amanda Jacobson ’25 and Taylor Capello ’25 were two of the 27 BSN graduates who took full advantage of the opportunities within the program, helping to establish a nursing club and service opportunities. But they also formed a lifelong friendship.
• For the first time, six students earned degrees in financial technology through the Martha & Spencer Love School of Business.
• Jules Levanti ’25, ������Ƶ’s first NC Space Grant Undergraduate Research Scholar, was accepted to the University of Texas at Austin to pursue a doctorate in a top 15 astronomy program in the U.S. It is the highest-ranking astronomy doctoral program in which an ������Ƶ Department of Physics and Astronomy student has been accepted.
• Jose Alex Reyes Arias ’25 became the first ������Ƶ student to go through the university’s three signature programs designed to increase access to higher education: The “It Takes a Village Project,” ������Ƶ Academy and the Odyssey Program.

  

Stories of determination, hard work and grit define the Class of 2025. Robby Van Riet ’25, a philosophy major, pushed through medical challenges that threatened to upend his academic journey; Cristy Mariné ’25, a cinema & television arts and strategic communications double major, studied abroad, directed three films and completed five internships during her four years; engineering major Kevin Burkett ’25 balanced his coursework and the demands of a student-athlete, while excelling in both; and Josh Lubetkin ’25, a sport management major, is leading a global initiative to build accessible turf for soccer fields in underserved communities, an idea that was fostered through his Winter Term study abroad experience.

Sean McDermott ’25, who earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and statistics, says being at graduation was a mixture of emotions.

“I’m excited for the next chapter, but I’m sad to leave. I’m sad to leave my friends here. I’m sad that I’ll never take another class again,” said McDermott, a native of Melville, New York, who plans to work at LabCorp in Burlington, North Carolina, following graduation. “I’ve made many connections here with professors and I hope that I continue those connections for the rest of my life.”

President Connie Ledoux Book asked the graduates to remember back to their New Student Convocation in 2021 during her “human bar graph exercise,” used to illustrate the number of students around the world who get the opportunity to attend a university like ������Ƶ. The exercise eventually led to one student standing and, at Commencement on Friday, Book asked that same student – Kayla Swenson ’25 – to rise again, encouraging everyone in the ������Ƶ community to support her if she ever asked.

“When we are in service to each other, to something greater than ourselves, that is a life of meaning, a life with purpose,” said Book in her charge to the graduates. “������Ƶ, Hebrew for oak, our beautiful oak trees remind us that we are strong, and our strength is our commitment to the success of each other.”