Division I Winter 2020 Commencement

MITCH DANIELS: Today, we’re gathered in formal convocation to celebrate the 242nd commencement exercises of Purdue University. Please join in singing our national anthem, followed by the invocation, offered today by Rabbi Michael Harvey of Temple Israel. MUSIC - “STAR-SPANGLED BANNER” Oh, 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 rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

01:05 - Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave. [APPLAUSE] MICHAEL HARVEY: Friends, let us join together in prayer, reflection, or meditation. Awesome and compassionate God, as we gather here together this morning, our hearts are filled with gratitude at reaching this sacred moment. From the time these precious students were entrusted to our care, we have prayed to see this day. We thank you for inspiring them with the value of learning and for blessing us with the opportunity to share their accomplishment.

02:16 - We sense the caring spirit of those parents and loved ones who are not able to be with us in person to experience our pride and joy. We give thanks for the commitment and dedication of the faculty and administration of Purdue University, which has served the academic community for generations. Please continue to be with them in their holy work. We pause to reflect on the troubled world these graduates inherit. Grant them the vision and resources to be Your hands and Your hearts in our troubled world, to be agents of healing.

03:06 - May they always be cognizant of their responsibilities as leaders. Bless them with health and wholeness in body, mind, and spirit. May they go from strength to strength. And let us say amen. (SINGING) Amen. Amen. [MUSIC - JEKYLL, “THIS IS THE MOMENT”] This is the moment. This is the day. This is the moment I know I’m on my way. Every endeavor I have made ever is coming into play, is here and now today. This is the moment, my final test, destiny beckoned, I never reckoned second best. I won’t look down. I must not fall.

04:53 - This is the moment, the sweetest moment of them all. This is the moment. Look at the odds. This day or never, I sit forever with the gods. When I look back, I will recall. Moment for moment, this was the moment, the greatest moment of them all, of– of– of them all. MITCHELL ELIAS DANIELS JR: For the third time in this unprecedented year, we’re welcoming the latest Purdue graduates to a virtual commencement ceremony. Of all the events we’ve had to cancel or postpone or move to the virtual environment, this one, to me, is by far the most disappointing.

06:18 - And it’s my fondest hope that we’ll be able to resume our incomparable commencement tradition soon. Today, despite the different delivery method, our pride in your achievement and our belief in your ability to accomplish your dreams is as strong as ever. It’s my pleasure to introduce today’s guest speaker, John A. Edwardson. John is one of our nation’s most successful business people and among the College of Engineering’s most celebrated graduates. In the nearly four decades since his graduation from Purdue, John has distinguished himself in growing and managing large organizations, including Fortune 500 companies Ameritech, United Airlines Corporation, and CDW Corporation, leaving a lasting impact on the global industrial landscape.

07:10 - He’s also a devoted altruist and supporter of organizations and causes ranging from Habitat for Humanity, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the advancement of women in STEM, and of course, our own Purdue University College of Engineering. John earned a Purdue bachelor of science in industrial engineering, served as a Purdue trustee from 1995 to 2005, and has received from Purdue the Outstanding Industrial Engineering Award, the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award, and in 2006, an honorary doctorate. Please join me in welcoming our distinguished alumnus, John Edwardson. JOHN EDWARDSON: Mitch, thank you for your kind and most generous introduction. Last January, when you invited me to give this commencement address, COVID had not yet arrived in the United States, or at least we didn’t know that it had, and we certainly didn’t know how long it would be with us.

08:14 - I had looked forward to greeting each of you in the Hall of Music. I had attended many events there as a student and as a Purdue trustee. I sat on this stage for 10 years of commencement ceremonies. But I never imagined I would be dressed up in a cap and a gown with nowhere to go. So welcome to my home in Florida, that with the magic of technology, makes it look like I’m on the stage at the Elliot Hall of Music.

08:49 - Congratulations on this most happy of days to you, Purdue’s newest alumni. And also to your parents, your siblings, your grandparents, and those gathered around you to celebrate this day. This day is a most unusual graduation at a most unusual time in the history of our country. You should be proud to receive your Purdue diploma, and I applaud you for the years of work it took for you to be here today. And as you know full well, this day would not have happened without the help of those gathered around you.

09:29 - I hope you have said thank you to each of them. So what is next for you? Given the economic difficulties we are in as a result of the COVID pandemic, it’s likely a number of you don’t yet know what is next for you. For those of you who don’t, you have something that gives you an edge in this very competitive world– your Purdue degree. Employers around the globe know the value of a Purdue education, and what you learned here will be a value for you for the rest of your life. I don’t want to diminish in any way what this pandemic has done to the families of many in our country, but this will not be your last major challenge, or likely even your most difficult one.

10:24 - By the time I graduated from Purdue, five of my high school classmates had been killed in the Vietnam War. Life is difficult. But Mitch asked me to discuss with you today some lessons I’ve learned that I thought might be helpful to you as you start your careers. So let’s begin. Many of you will likely end up in jobs that have seemingly little to do with what you studied at Purdue. However, if you’re a STEM major, you now understand and have often used the scientific method of problem-solving. And guess what? It isn’t just for scientists or engineers, but is applicable to many problems you will encounter for the rest of your years.

11:15 - And if you are not a STEM major, you surely had a philosophy course or two where the art of problem-solving was discussed. But regardless of what you studied, it’s unlikely that you took a course in listening or collaborative leadership, both of which are now offered at Purdue. However, listening may be the most important skill you’ll need to learn to be successful. Most of us in our first full-time job have been trained to be an individual performer, even though most work in the world is done by teams. The transformation from individual performer to team player to manager and then leader was a hard one for me.

12:05 - At age 34, I was named the chief financial officer of Northwest Airlines. I was the youngest CFO of any Fortune 500 company in America, and I was pretty full of myself. After a few months on the job, the CEO of Northwest walked into my office, closed the door, and sat down. This was most unusual because every meeting we’d had before was either in his office or his conference room, so I wondered what he wanted to talk about. He got right to the point. He said, John, I know you want to be a head coach someday.

12:46 - He had played fullback at Notre Dame and he liked the term head coach better than CEO. He went on to say that I was giving my direct reports too much direction too quickly and listening too little to what they had to say. He said it wasn’t my job to solve their problems but to listen, to nudge, and to explore with them what the best solutions might be. I took his coaching to heart, but it was not easy for me to change, as I’d always been that person in the classroom that all of you know who wanted to come up with the answer first. Fast forward 10 more years to 1994. I was then President of United Airlines. In that job, I typically traveled around 80 to 90 nights each year.

13:42 - And for those of you who have traveled that much, you and your family know how difficult it is to re-enter family life after having been gone so often. One night, having just come back from an overseas trip, I was having dinner with my family at home. After receiving some solicited advice from me, my oldest daughter blurted out saying, Dad, just because you tell people what to do all day long at work doesn’t mean that when you get home you get to tell us what to do. I responded to her and her sisters that I hardly ever told anybody what to do at work, and that was why, when I got home from the office, I was ready to tell them what to do. My three daughters were puzzled by that statement, so I explained to them that if I told people what to do all day long at work that no one would want to work with me, let alone for me.

14:45 - My oldest daughter’s response was something like, well, duh. I then went on to explain that parenting was quite different from being a company president. She now understands that a little better as she has a 12-year-old at home. Experience, though, taught me, and research has shown, that most decisions reached by a group are better than those reached by one individual. Input from others helps. Listening to others helps. And brainstorming about options helps. Sometimes one person does have to make the decision, but I usually thought that a decision reached by consensus turned out to be the better one.

15:33 - Before I close, I want to add one final thought about listening. It’s likely, and I hope true, that many of you will have very successful careers. Most of my childhood was spent on a small town, and like many of you, I am also a first generation college grad. Sometimes with some success, it becomes easy to forget where you came from and what life is like for most of the world. You’ve forgotten that many others have worked just as hard as you have and are just as smart and capable as you are, and you don’t acknowledge that timing, luck, or maybe a mentor, someone else didn’t have, might have been big factors in your success.

16:28 - But most dangerous of all is that you might begin to believe you deserve the good things that happen to you. I’ve watched this happen to many people over my 50-year career. Thankfulness, humility, and awareness of how difficult life is for many people are important to be a good leader. From my standpoint, the best way for me to keep in touch with what I call the real world, and to understand what life is like for many, was by doing hands on work with them in the community where they lived, where they worked, listening to their life stories, and understanding what their struggles were. For me, this included such things as building Habitat for Humanity homes while working side by side with the prospective owners, or serving as a night shift supervisor– really, a bouncer– and an overnight homeless shelter in Evanston, Illinois.

17:35 - And for 10 years driving the children of two families to visit their mothers, both of whom were in prison for murder. These and other volunteer activities helped remind me to be thankful and appreciative of my situation in life. Wanting my children to understand the world better, I often asked them to accompany me in many of these activities, except for one experience, which I’ll close with. One of the boys I had been driving to prison lived with his grandmother. She called me one day to let me know that her grandson had joined a gang, moved out, and was selling drugs on the street in Chicago, and that his best friend– they were both 16– had been stabbed to death.

18:31 - He now wanted to get out of the gang he had joined and she asked for my hope. I was still then the president of United Airlines and had many contacts in the city of Chicago. In a few days, I was able to make contact with a law firm that represented the gang he belonged to. They arranged a meeting for me with the leader of the Black P-Stone Nation, at that time the largest and most fierce African American gang in Chicago. He and I met at the stairwell of an apartment complex, and after a 30-minute discussion, he agreed to let the young boy out of the gang, but said that he would have to go through a severe de-initiation ritual.

19:20 - Several days later, a gaunt 16-year-old reappeared. He had a rough time for a number of years, and even spent five years in prison. However, at age 40 now, he is married, off of hard drugs, and has held the same job as an auto mechanic for over 10 years. We had a reunion dinner just a few weeks ago, and as we were leaving the restaurant where we had first had dinner when he was 10 years old, I reached out my elbow to give him a COVID elbow bump. But he threw his arms around me and gave me a wonderful hug. I cried much of the way home.

20:05 - There is a world not too far from where I live in a Chicago suburb, and likely not too far from where many of you live, and possibly right where some of you are now watching this video, that is a world that is tough and difficult beyond the knowledge that most of us have. All of us need to understand the lack of hope, the desperation, and even the physical hunger that many children experience while growing up in the most prosperous country in the world. It takes a lot more than any government can do. It takes committed people, like each of you, to lend a helping hand, to have an open ear, to have an understanding heart, and to give you some words of kindness and support to help change these difficult situations. And doing that will help keep you grounded, thankful, and to help you be a better leader.

21:11 - So congratulations to each of you, and hail Purdue. [APPLAUSE] [MUSIC - “AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL”] [APPLAUSE] SPEAKER 1: Mr. President, the candidates for the Doctor of Philosophy degrees will be presented by Linda J. Mason, Dean of the Graduate School. LINDA MASON: Mr. President, these students have successfully fulfilled the requirements of the graduate school. With the approval of the faculty, they are now presented to you to receive the Doctor of Philosophy degree.

24:34 - MITCHELL ELIAS DANIELS JR: Exercising the authority of the trustees of Purdue University, legally vested by the people of the state of Indiana, and upon the recommendation of the faculty of Purdue, I now confer upon you who have fulfilled the highest requirements of this University, the Doctor of Philosophy degree, with all the rights, privileges, duties, and responsibilities of that degree. As evidence of this tremendous achievement, you will be vested with the hood of the Doctor of Philosophy and receive an appropriately inscribed diploma. I now invite our orators to read aloud the names of all students who are earning Doctors of Philosophy degrees. Graduates, I invite you to have your special designee hood you and present you your diploma cover now. Be sure to capture a photo of this to share with us. SPEAKER 2: Doctor of Philosophy.

25:29 - Ahmed Abdelhamid, Nader Shawky Abutaleb, Temitope Akanbi, Hillary Andaluz Aguilar, Brandon Anson, Jun Han Bae, Jingchen Bai, Tania Barreto, Sayan Basak, Jenny L. Beal, Jessica Ann Beck, Miranda Rae Belcher, Teng Bian, Priyam Biswas, Sarah E. Brookes, Robert J. Cassell, Andrea M. Chambers, Jian-Yu Chen, Teng Chi, Hye Young Cho, Travis Cline, Kelly Ann Cole, Rachel Coleman, Michelle E. Coverdale, Danielle M. Crimmins, Sen Dai, Renu Dalal, Haotian Deng, Monica del Pilar Diaz Beltran, Alexandra M. Dieterly, Xueting Dou, Will A. Eagan, Huang Fang, Hayden W. Fennell, Victor Charles Ferguson, Brian M. Fields, Rachel M. Foguth, Dede M.

Frederick, 26:55 - Ahmadreza Ghanbarpour Ghouchani, Jason A. Goebel, Mahak Goindani, Shivam Gupta, Kristian D. Hajny, Henry J. Hamann, Emily X. Han, Jeongho Han, Avril M. harder, Tyler R. Hayes, Marie Julia Barich Henderson, Tianyang Hu, Akshay Jajoo, Yuseok Jeon, Andrew T. Kanach, Caroline W. Karanja, Alireza Karbakhsh Ravari, Violet Abigail Kiesel, Haejin Kim, Daniel S. Lee, I-Ta Lee, Kenneth W. Lee, James A. Lembke, Chang Li, Jiapeng Liu, Weichuan Luo.

27:54 - SPEAKER 3: Xin Ma, Antoine Pierrick Martin, Brandon L. mash, Samarth Mathur, Joseph D. McConeghy, Kelly A. McFall, William W. McNutt, Mohammad Mohsen Minaei Bidgoli, Lakshya Mittal, Dana Moseson, Aaron George Mosey, Ryan L. Murphy, Jaclyn Rene Myers, Patrick J. Newman, Mary L. Niedrauer, Panae Noomuna, William E. Odom, Yanal Oueis, Alexandr Pak, Tyler John Peat, Fei Peng, Hui Peng, Manoj Penmetcha, Diana C. Pita, Joan L. Ponce, Marlen Promann, Vatsal Purohit, Amelia A. Putnam, Caitlin E. Randolph, Austin Riegsecker, Tatiana Renae Ringenberg, Victor A.

Roman, 29:35 - Carla Ann Rosenfield, Robert Thomas Ryan, Hoda Salsabili, Troy A. Seberson, Tingting Shen, Hannah M. Simpson, Yuying Song, Pei Su, Craig J. Sweet, Hasini T. Urala Liyanage Dona Gunasinghe, Peter F. Wagner, Tyrel A. Wagner, Yoselyn Walsh, Cheng Wang, Qi Wang, Tiantian Wang, Xinyue Wang, Redha Widarsyah, Elena Wild, Chloe C. Wires, Zizhuang Wu, Rongxin Xia, Lan Xu, Zhenyu Xu, Yo-Sing Yeh, Yang Yu, Chaehyun Yum, Xiaofang Zheng. SPEAKER 1: Mr. President, the candidates for the master’s degrees will be presented by Linda J. Mason, Dean of the Graduate School. LINDA MASON: Mr. President, these students have successfully fulfilled the requirements of the graduate school.

31:05 - With the approval of the faculty, they are not presented to you to receive the master’s degree. MITCHELL ELIAS DANIELS JR: Exercising the authority of the trustees of Purdue University, legally vested by the people of the state of Indiana, and upon the recommendation of the Purdue faculty, I now confer upon you the master’s degree, with all the rights, privileges, duties, and responsibilities of that degree. As evidence of this achievement, you will receive an appropriately inscribed diploma. I now invite our orators to read aloud the names of students who are earning master’s degrees. Graduates, I invite you to have your special designee present your diploma cover to you now.

31:47 - Be sure to capture a photo of this to share with us. SPEAKER 2: Master’s. Shashwat Agarwal, Soumya Ajmera, Rakan Alanazi, Alyse Marie Allred, Aala Oqab Alsalem, David Altum, Ali Amer, Basavesh Ammanaghatta Shivakumar, Creighton Anderson, John Anello, Aman Arora, Roberto Bahamonde, Joseph Balazs, Cassidy Balciunas, Akhil Bandarupalli, Shrey Bansal, Roman Benjamin, Chloe Benzer, Jessica Blum, Grace Boone, Casey Burke, Cody Butler, Anneliese Butts, Joseph Byerly, Go Eum Cha, Jorge Chamorro Corea, Cecilia Chapin, Jingning Chen, Po-Yen Chen, Tianyu Chen, Yu-Chuan Chen, Abbey Colclasure, Adrian Colon, Donovan Colquitt, Vincent Coltellino, Timothy Cotton, Jordan Crafts, Christine Cullen, Michael Dahlgren, Tian Dai, Jill Decker, Richard Demarco, Kyle Demato, Penghao Deng, Smit Dixit, Ziming Dong, Karan Vipul Doshi, Peng Du, Zeyu Du, Anisha Dutta, Jason Endsley, Sangjun Eom, Sofia Espinell Gonzalez, Jake Fiddler, Christopher Fortunato, Daulton Freeman, David Frey, Andrew Gabet, Angela Gallip, Michael Greff, Zhuang Guo, Pooja Gupta, Simran Gurdasani, Christopher Haack, Shannon Hadley, Tianfang Han, Hannah Harper, Elijah Harrington, Robert Heitz, Kaitlin Helfter, Maximilliano Heredia, Jonathan Hilleman, Himanshu Himanshu, Shubham Hire, Tomas Hrdlovics, Yifei Hu, Yuanyuan Hu, Hsueh-Mou Huang, Yingming Huang, Yutzu Huang, Brittany Huff, Rishabh Jain, Utkarsh Jaiswal, Victoria Jakicic, Aakash Jangir, Claire Jarvie, Kenneth Jay, Wenzheng Jiang, Alexandra John, Sakshi Kale, Rustam Kalimzhanov, Kathir Kamatchi, Rebecca Kemplen, Brandon Keough, Nischay Khona, Woong Bae Kim, Zewei Kong, Kali Krishnamurti, Dimitrios Krommydas, Yury Kuleshov, Akul Manoj Kumar, Nagendra Kumar, Allycen Kurup, Haowei Lai, Yi-Yu Lai, Jennifer Leaird, Qingli Lei, Xingyu Lei, Sharon Li, Tianrong Li, Xinwen Li, Ying Li, Zhen Li, Zhixin Li, Li Xin Lim, Meng-Chieh Lin, Zihan Lin, Liu Bangde, Qiyao Liu, Ziyu Liu, Achraf Lokmani, Zhaotian Lu, Yangsai Lyu. SPEAKER 3: David Magness, Rujuta Mamadapur, Avnika Manaktala, Karun Manikoth, Jennifer Marie Matthews, Silvio Mayolo, Jeffrey Meek, Megha Megha, Nikhil Mehta, Jiaying Mei, Binghong Miao, Jennifer Mikels, Samara Miller, Antoine Minier, Richa Mishra, Kanishka Misra, Jaime Garcia, Sagar Motwani, Jennifer Allen Moumane, Evan Murphy, Rachel Nellett, Wei Siong Neo, Aaron Neustedter, Darshan Parsuvanathan Chandrasekar, Francis Pongo, Hannah Powers, Jeff Pressler, Subhadarsini Prusty, Yuheng Qiu, Hersh Rai, Shoban Kumar Rajamani Vimalarani, Pratik Ramprasad, Glenda Remigio Sol, Ruihua Ren, Kristal Reyes, Christopher Rhee, Lindsey Roberts, Sinay Robles, Jordan Roseman, Marcos Ruiz, Myeonghan Ryu, Samuel Sachs, Zahra Sajedinia, Sarah Sams, Mckayla Schloemer, Matthew Schnell, Alexander Seto, Karan Shah, Smit Shah, Tanvi Shah, Mengqian Shen, Carl Kuang Yu Shi, Lifeng Shi, Mengyuan Shi, Xiaobing Shi, Sonali Srijan, Milos Stankovic, Zoe Starkey, Hannah Stillman, Annie Stout, Mark Suarez, Brian Sumprer, Vijayaraghavan Sundararajan, Arissusana Sutalim, Yujin Tao, Zhewei Tao, Patrick Teall, Carrie Terwilliger, Jan Thompson, Duong Tran, Gabrielle Truitt, Krassimir Tzvetanov, Leslie Vargas Silva, Richard Vogel, Busch Voigts, William Walls, Haizhen Wang, Jiansen Wang, Qingyi Wang, Weinan Wang, Wenyiqing Wang, Xiaojian Wang, Zi Wang, Ziyi Wang, Elizabeth Wehren, Dylan Welsh, Juan Wen, Matthew White, Andi wilbee, Matthew Wright, Hanrui Wu, Pingyu Xia, Honglin Xu, Lu Xu, Jixuan Yao, Weikai Ye, Haoyun Yin, Sheng Yu, Yuan Yuan, Buxin Zhai, Chi Zhang, Peng Zhang, Wenyu Zhang, Xin Zhang, Yizhou Zhang, Yuchen Zhang, Yunke Zhou, Lucia Zuniga. SPEAKER 1: Mr. President, the candidate for the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree will be presented by Marion K. Underwood, Dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences. MARION UNDERWOOD: Mr.

President, this student has successfully 40:51 - fulfilled the requirements of the professional curriculum at the College of Health and Human Sciences. With the approval of the faculty, she has now presented to you to receive the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. MITCHELL ELIAS DANIELS JR: Exercising the authority of the trustees of Purdue University, legally vested by the people of the state of Indiana, and upon the recommendation of the Purdue faculty, I now confer upon you the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree, with all rights, privileges, duties, and responsibilities of that degree. As evidence of this achievement, you will now be vested with the hood of the Doctor of Nursing Practice and receive an appropriately inscribed diploma. I now invite our orator to read aloud the name of the student who is earning a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.

41:41 - Graduate, I invite you to have your special designee hood you and present your diploma cover now. Be sure to capture a photo of this to share with us. SPEAKER 2: Doctor of Nursing. Lisa Marie Hollister, Laura Marie Moffat. SPEAKER 1: Mr. President, the candidates for the Doctor of Pharmacy degree will be presented by Eric L. Barker, Dean of the College of Pharmacy. ERIC BARKER: Mr. President, these students have successfully fulfilled the requirements of the professional curriculum of the College of Pharmacy. With the approval of the faculty, they are now presented to you to receive the Doctor of Pharmacy degree.

42:23 - MITCHELL ELIAS DANIELS JR: Exercising the authority of the trustees of Purdue University, legally vested by the people of the state of Indiana, and upon the recommendation of the faculty, I now confer upon you the Doctor of Pharmacy degree, with all rights, privileges, duties, and responsibilities of that degree. As evidence of this achievement, you’ll now be vested with the hood of the Doctor of Pharmacy and receive an appropriately inscribed diploma. I now invite our orator to read aloud the names of all students who are earning Doctors of Pharmacy degrees. Graduates, I invite you to have your special designee hood you and present your diploma cover now. Be sure to capture a photo of this moment to share with us. SPEAKER 2: Doctor of Pharmacy.

43:12 - Sewlanchi Tekle-Wold, Jessica [? Chenyen ?] Zhao. SPEAKER 1: Mr. President, the candidate for the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree will be presented by Willie M. Reed, Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine. WILLIE REED: Mr. President, this student has successfully fulfilled the requirements of the professional curriculum of the College of Veterinary Medicine. With the approval of the faculty, she is now presented to you to receive the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree.

43:47 - MITCHELL ELIAS DANIELS JR: Exercising the authority of the trustees of Purdue University, legally vested by the people of the state of Indiana, and upon the recommendation of the faculty, I now confer upon you the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree, with all rights, privileges, duties, and responsibilities of that degree. As evidence of this achievement, you’ll now be vested with the hood of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and receive an appropriately inscribed diploma. I now invite our orator to read aloud the name of the student who is earning the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. Graduate, I invite you to have your special designee hood you and present your diploma cover now. Be sure to capture a photo of this to share with us. SPEAKER 2: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. Emily Katherine Hess.

44:37 - MITCHELL ELIAS DANIELS JR: It’s appropriate at this time that we give special recognition to those graduates who have demonstrated outstanding scholastic achievement, leadership, and service to the University community. You can review the recipients of these achievements in your commencement program. On behalf of the trustees and the faculty, congratulations on your accomplishments. We’re counting on you to continue making exceptional contributions in all your future endeavors. Some of our graduates are wearing red, white, and blue cords, signifying that they are veterans of the US Armed Forces.

45:13 - We would like to express our sincere gratitude to those servicemen and women for their patriotism. SPEAKER 1: Mr. President, I am pleased to present the candidates for the baccalaureate and associate degrees– College of Health and Human Sciences, School of Management, College of Pharmacy, Polytechnic Institute, College of Science, College of Veterinary Medicine. Mr. President, these students have successfully fulfilled the requirements of the undergraduate curricula in their respective college or school. With the approval of the faculty, they are now presented to you to receive the appropriate degree. MITCHELL ELIAS DANIELS JR: Exercising the authority of the trustees of Purdue University, legally vested by the people of the state of Indiana, and upon the recommendation of the Purdue faculty, I now confer upon each of you who have fulfilled the stated requirements the appropriate baccalaureate and associate degree, with all the rights, privileges, duties, and responsibilities of that degree.

46:18 - As evidence of this achievement, you will now receive an appropriately inscribed diploma. I now invite our orators to read aloud the names of students who are earning baccalaureate and associate degrees. Graduates, I invite you to have your special designee present your diploma cover to you now. Be sure to capture a photo of this to share with us. SPEAKER 2: College of Health and Human Sciences.

46:44 - Sara Albin Saad, Vincent Alerding, Zoee Anderson, Maria Andrade, Jacob Andrews, Josephine Andrews, Jackson Anthrop, Joshua Arias, Nicola Armour-Smith, Livan Arteaga, Jennifer Baar, Emily Baird, Lauren Ball, Tanner Balsamo, Derrick Barnes, Kelsie Basile, Ethan Beaty, Jadebrielle Bennesh, Grace Berry, George Bisong, Brianne Blanford, Melissa Bol, Riley Bolin, Samuel Bondi, Aaron Bowers, Jordyn Bradley, Leila Bridgewater, Joshua Broadbent, Lucas Broughton, Kelly Browne, Haley Buchanan, Simone Bush, Allie Buszkiewicz, Taylor Catron, Peter Celeste, Nicole Charlebois, Camila Checa, Haowen Chen, Kyleigh Ciesialka, Cassandra Clem, Sydney Cochran, Zachary Collins, Krista Combs, Sarah Cook, Nicole Cordes, Bryce Crook, Alyssa Cutter, Sarah Davenport, Christina Davidson, Courtney Davis, Megan Decker, Madelyn Delamarter, Madison Donley, Emma Douglas, Erin Dubin, Quinton Duquette, Dawson Dwyer, Alexis Edgerson, Skylar England, Khristina Erickson, Sheelagh Evans, Ian Fiechter, Elias Figueroa, Lilian Fillenwarth, Abigail Fisher, Rayce Fisher, Kimberly Fu, Yili Fu, Matthew Funderburg, Lauren Gaddis, Angel Gaines, Kaitlin Gall, Abigail Gasior, Zachary Gearhart, Laurel Gonsiorowski, Kristen Gotsch, Madison Graham, Kelly Gray, Adejiona Gunn, Grant Hakanson, Daysia Hall, Savannah Hall, Devonn Hamilton, Jenna Hancock, Kristin Harbert, Lauren Harlow, Kayla Harretos, Angela Harrington, LaSeanna Harris, Alexandra Headdy, Kylee Heavilin, Emma Henold, Lorena Hernandez, Seth Hernly, Christina Hevel, Lavanya Hewa Atapattuge, Jamiel Hilal, Ashley Hogan, Caroline Hopfensperger, Mary Houston, Destiny Howze, Salma Monica Huerta, Kiara Hughes, Ashlyn Hurych, Travis Huston, Vincent Iu, Allison Jeffries, Alexis Jennings, Elsa Johnson, Lauren Johnson, Ellory Jones, Brittany Judge, Caitlin Kane, Melanie Kaplan, Matthew Kelly, Mamie Kenar, Mckenna Keppler, Chelsea Kim, Hyesang Kim, Thomas Kim, Katerina King, Travis Kirby, Kami Koors, Will Kretzer, Dasia LaCour, Alexandra Landsly, Adam Lechowicz, Victoria Legear, Joshua Leisure, Rachel Linder, Nicole Lindsay, Hannah Lipofsky, Matthew Liu, Samuel Loebig, Jessica [INAUDIBLE] Lopez, Karlee Lukasik, Zidan Luo, Blake Macke, Megan Madigral, David Maniglia, Jaed Martin, Kelsey Martin, Alexa Mason, Diana McCann, Tyler McEvoy, Karissa McLaughlin, Ian McMahon, Brittney McVicker, Katelyn Mercker, Brooke Michal, Remingtin Mickle, Nikita Miller, Abigail Mills, Chloe Mills, Kelsey Minniear, Carter Moldenhauer, Morgan Moloney, Alexis Moody, Riley Moody, Rondale Moore, Brenna Morgan, Maryann Mundia, Emily Neu, Caitlun Newton, Lindsay Ngo, Van Minh Khang Nguyen, Kennedy Niedbalski, Sabrina Noone, Robert Norman, Colin O’Connor, HyungJin Oh, Joohee Juliette Oh, Jing Tong [? Rosalind ?] Ong, Rosalio Ornelas, Elizabeth Palazzo, Claire Pardo, Hyungtae Park, Mary Parkman, Teodoro Partida Valencia, Arix Xiao Wei Peh, Daniella Pezzulo, Adrienne Phillips, Lydia Pickering, Joseph Pimentel, Paige Pitcock, Colin Plinovich, Joshua Plue, Haley Podimsky, Ariana Poehl, Maesyn Poidomani, Mackenzie Potter, Madison Powell, Eleni Price, Zelong Qi, Abigail Rardin, Kristianna Reams, Carson Regruth, Sarah Reynolds, Aholibama Ricardo Martinez, Megan Ricks, Cecilia Ringer, Blake Roberts, Zoe Roberts, Brianna Robison, Eliza Ross, Rebecca Ruhmann, Ashton Runner, Montserrat Salazar, Cassidy Sampson, Danielle Sarracino, Noah Scheller, Elizabeth Scott, Shannon Sears, Chelsea Shafer, Reagan Sharick, Benjamin Sheets, Hao Yu Shen, Jiali Shen, Averi Shoemaker, Arden Sidel, Kudzaishe Sitshebo, Abigail Smith, Anne Smith, Eleanor Snyder, Nicole Snyder, Samuel Snyder, Sierra Snyder, Jianlan Song, Myong Gyu Song, Xingyu Song, Jared Sparks, Emily Stahly, Ashley Stallsworth, Jacob Stimley, Amy Stivers, James Sullivan, Garrett Suter, Trevor Thompson, Blaine Tonaki, Kyla Townsend, Katherine Tuey, Courtney Lynn Turriff, Awbrei Vachon, Madison Vanhorenbeck, John Vasquez, Tiffany Vedo, Audrey Vierk, Samantha Villagomez, Diego Villeda Maduro, Andriy Vlashyn, Joseph Voigt, Melissa Wagner, John Walton, Isabel Ward, [? Allicia ?] Wilfong, Benjamin Withers, Alexius Wlodarski, Nicole Woloshuk, Kaylee Wrightsman, Qian Wu, Haiyan Xiao, Yoshiya Yamakawa, Jiayi Yang, Jing Yang, Siqi Yang, Kay Yeung, Taylor Yoder, Kara Zaicow, Allison Zajakala, Xingyui Zhang. SPEAKER 4: The School of Management. Nur Salsabila Binti Ab Jalil, Hana Abdel Dayem, Jack Adair, Samuel Allender, Neel Amondikar, Erik Appel, Tiffany Ashton, Nur Azmy, Jorge Baltzell, Jordan Benedict, John Berghoff, Erin Brown, Maihan Bui, Philip Bush, Brian Cain, Hio Lam Chang, Kejiao Chen, Ningtao Chen, Ernest Choi, Ji Hye choi, Charlotte Ciboulet, Ellen Copeland, Mitchell Cron, Emily Current, Jonathan Dean, Noah Deichman, Jonathan Dellinger, Jason Denman III, Elijah Douglass, Kathleen Dunnuck, Adma Easterday, Jonathan Esparza, Benjamin Felix, Nicholas Feltgen, Rebecca Filip, Catherine Frerman, Jordan Galindo, Rohan Ghandhi, Jack Gartlan, William Garvin, Kyle Gedenk, Lauren Golten, Rajiv Gowdara Lingaraju, Bailey Green, Sijia Guo, Pranav Guru, Hunter Haney, Colin Harmeyer, Dominic Hart, Reagan Heffner, Ethan Hicks, Caleb Ho, Justin Hopkins, Laura Horton, Tsung-Yen Huang, Jordan Ingraham, Rebecca Isenberg, Jay Jennings, Kexin Jin, Daniel Jo, Yun Sung Jo, Haley Johnston, Xindan Kang, Megan Kennedy, Eunwon Kim, Jaeyoon Kim, Jun-Beom Kim, Mathew Koch, Brock Koehler, Stephan Koeningsfest, Charles Kull, Cody Laduke, Maya Lambert, Yu-Chien Lee, Isaac Leeke, Xin Li Leong, Jennifer Liao, Ziqian Ling, Jordan Linville, Ying Liu, Antonia Loh, Adrian Lopez, Camila Lopez Ortiz, Luo Sixing, Jinjie Lyu, Xiao Ma, Max Marquardt, Clayton Marshall, Alexander May, Kaitlyn Mc Hale, Jason Moreira, Jeffrey Moxley, Jihui Mu, Paul Murphy, Grant Myers, Danielle Nondorf, Aidan O’Connell, Emily Okerson, Chenxin Pan, Gyurim Park, Cole Parsons, Mansi Patel, Lynske Phu, Anna Pi, Rachel Pipp, Nathan Pirtle, David Preuss, Balqiah Rahman, Adarsh Reddy, Alexandra Rodrigues, Michael Roesel, Matthew Seers, Abigail Seberger, Brian Shaffer, Justin Soeldner, Alexandra Spaulding, Ananth Srinath, Austin Stengel, Derek Sullivan, Ying Sun, Nathan Surges, Chris taff., Ashley Terhune, Nathaniel Terrell, Andrew Theime, Philip Thompson, Xian Jin Jonathan Toh, Ivette Torres, Alexander Trachtman, Taylor Traut, Brandt True, Patrick Trujillo, Cody Ubelhor, David Utomo, Sophia Venice, Prmeeti Verma, Michael Walters, Anthony Wang, Jennifer Wang, Zhiyue Wang, Daniel Weber, Dylan Webster, Qikun Wen, Cameron Wilson, Wai Yan Wong, Weibo Xu, Chuying Yang, Kazuya Yokoyama, Amy Zhang, Yu Zhang, Adriana Zheng Wu, Qianlu Zhou. SPEAKER 2: College of Pharmacy. Lingxi Chen, Kai Gao, Bo Hyun Lee, Spencer Stringham. SPEAKER 4: The Polytechnic Institute. Siddhartha Adhikari, Sophia A. Alessia, Brian Alexander, Hunter Amato, Darren Anderson, William Anderson, Gabriel Araneda, Mitchell Argamasilla, Brianna Armes, Daulton Armstrong, Saad Asim, Onat Ataman, Wesley Babilonia, Xuejiao Bai, Kyle Baldwin, Caleb Balisacan, Simran Bansal, Elliott Barber, Everett Barry, Elizabeth Bartley, Max Justin Bauer, Milo Beam, Adele Becker, Maxwell Stephen Becker, Mason Beggs, William Berkenbush, David Berthiaume, Dhruv Bhargava, Connor Blackburn, Owen Blumm, Andrew Bohm, Mitchell Bolda, Eric Samuel Borders, Michael Borders, Daniel Dorre, Curtis Bouchie, Sekayi [? Satia ?] Yvonne Bracey, Emma Bracher, Taylor Briel, Ian Brooks, David Broughton, Ty Broussard, Ash Brown, Lexin Brunner, Gary Bush, Brandon Butram, Kelly Caldwell, Matthew Carlin, Justin Cassidy, Ernesto Castanares, Kelly Castillo, Halie Cerbone, Sahej Chandhok, Elyssa Charles, Richard Cherry, Youngjun Choi, Branden Christensen, Nicholas Clark, Lucas Clifford, Elise Cone, Jacob Conner, David Conrad Snyder, Makayla Crawford, Nathan Criswell, Jairius Davenport, Daniella Davis, Matthew Davis, Brandan Dayton, Connor Dickerson, Andrew Doak, Noah Dockrey, Robin Drake, Tyler Dudley, Adam Dunham, Hunter Maxwell Dunifon, Clair Dunwoody, Dana Dworak, Luigi Dy, Aaron Eads, John Eenigenburg, Elizabeth Elliott, Miles Eryman, Joseph Evelo, Semisi Fakasiieiki, Chaoyu Fan, Kyle Ferguson, Ezequiel Finkielman Bramati, Elizabeth Finley, Trevor Fisher, Frederick Ford, Jacob Forman, Collin Freet, John Fullmer, Scott Garber, John Gardner, Joshua Germond, Scott Giammatteo, Gabriella Giannini, Levi Glass, Seth Glover, Tara Gomez, Armando Good, Nathaniel Goodson, Daemyn Gott, Kaleb Gould, Emerson Grant, Amaris Maurice Gaynelle Grimme, Trevor Hamill, Joseph Hammel, David Han, Haoyu Han, Tom Hanna, Andrew Harbeson, Jack Hartig, Marie Hartzell, Evan Havener, John Healy, Drew Hendrix, Michael Herrmann, Clayton Hess, Matthew Hinkley, Kayla Hobbs, Dakota Hodapp, Kevin Holcomb, Olivia Hom, Caleb Honegger, Seung Yoon Hong, Xiaotong Huang, Ian Hubble, Larry Humphries, Luke Ingram, Juliet Jimenez, Hunter Johnson, Ian Johnston, Wyatt Johnston, Keiwan Jones, Logan Jones, Taylor Jones, James Kalkbrenner, Muhammad Khalid, Brandon Kidd, Byoungchul Kim, Judah Kitchel, Joshua Knecht, Arthur Koehler, James Kouns, Thomas Krane, Griffin Lapan, Tiffany Lape, Tanner Lauchnor, Ignacio Lay, Luke Leaman, Daniel Lewis, Travis Lilly, Madison Lindeman, Austin Line, Xingyu Liu, Ansh Lulla, Franz Luna, Jordan Lykowski, Jake Mako, Lukas Marinovic, Nicholas markos, Melissa Marks, Justus Marshall, Logan May, Hunter Mccartin, Joseph Mcginnis, Johannes Menbere, Nathan Menor, Kevin Mercer, Stephen Meredith, Santiago merlano-Oliver, Constance Miller, Daniel Miller, Kyle Milne, Michael Montgomery, Reece Montgomery, Tristin Moreno, Isabelle Morrissey, Derek Motz, Nicholas Moyer, Adit Mukherjee, Sneha Mulki, Charles Muston, Jessica Myers, Melissa Myers, Emma Nagy, Mallory nason, Nguyen Nguyen, Matthew Nogay, Daniel Noorlag, John Northquist, James Olekszyk, Jackson Olvera-Rowland, Bradley Orgon, Zachary Overway, Michael Padlo, Noah Pao, Luis Parades, Min Jae Park, Winston Park, Devang Patel, Max Perez, Landan Perry, Lara Pierce, Nicholas Pilarski, Jeremy Plaiss, David Prendergast, James Ramsey, Alex Rasmussen, Zachariah Retzloff, [INAUDIBLE] Rhine, Luke Rhoades, Andrew Rice, Lucas Richardson, Keith Ridge, Emilio Rojas, Mark Roland, Jaeger Rose, Joseph Ross, Monte Roth, Trevor Roy, Zackery Russell, Andrew Sakai, Juan Salazar, Nikolas Sambado, Donovan Samphier, Lydia Scarcelli, Ethan Schilling, Benjamin Scholer, Eric Selle, John Seramur, Cory Shearer, Shannon Shen, Braden Shepard, Luke Smethers, Connor Smith, Jason Smith, Dalton Dion Southard, Dimitar Spasovski, Alexander Steffen, Eric Steinmetz, Wyatt Stephan, Blake Stevens, Chad Stevens, Calan Stover, Helena Strohmier, Jeffrey Strycker, Keith Sturm, Adam Sullivan, Jeffrey Sullivan, Lin Sun Fa, Kameron Sutton, Steven Sutton, Chance Szubryt, Austin Thompson, Zlatomir Todorov, Benjamin Tolliver, Steven Truong, Kenny Varghese, Jessica Vasquez, Justin Vega, Aurora Vetrovsky, James Vogel, Owen Walschlager, Haoning Wang, Zichao Wang, Tyler Wasserott, Sammi Watson, Ben Wendholt, Abigail Westbrook, Lillian Whited, Luke Winteregg, Matthew Wisler, Kai Chiu Oscar Wong, Caleb Wood, Brian Woolson, Leonard Wynk, Pavithra Yendluru, Maxfield Yonts, Kyoo Hyun Yoon, Caitlyn Young, Zhi Hui Yu, Zachary Zeabart, Jinze Zhang, Kallista Zhang, Maggie Zhang, Nathan Ziese, Joel Zimmerman, Nathan Zirkle, Johnny Zoeller, Yuwei Zuo, Logan Bryant, Rodney Gonzales, Lucas Michael, Stephanie Ratliff, Desiree Rice, William Roberts. SPEAKER 2: College of Science.

12:00 - Nathan Adduci, Shaurya Aggarwal, Austin Alarie, Joshua Allen, Maram Almutairi, Dhairya Amin, Chase Anderson, Heidi Anderson, Noah Angeles, Alex Archambault, Cody Ball, Kushal Bandi, Aarushi Banerjee, Angela Bansal, Andrew Batdorf, Travis Beamon, David Beardmore, Jordyn Becich, Sydney Bell, Michael Beshear, Wira Asyraf Bin Ismail, Erin Bodenbach, Muhammad Bokhari, Kyle booth, Christian Bortolotti, Meriem Bounab, Adil Uddin Khan Bozai, Logan Bradley-Trietsch, Hanna Britton, Cara Brookins, Kyle Buzza, Jaret Carpenter, Shivangi Chand, Nathan Chapman, Ryan Chen, Yingqi Chen, Gloria Cheng, Ashwin Chidanand, Andrew Chu, Esther Chung, Carlo Cirrincione, Samantha Coe, Alexander Cogelja, Rachel Collicott, Kyle Conrad, Megan Crites, Briana Crowe, Eric Cummings, Han Dai, Viraat Das, Anabelle Davis, Celine Diane Dela Llana, Madalyn Deselem, Clayton Detke, Thomas Dipuma, Yiting Du, Glen Eder, Mehran Einakchi, Landon Ellis, Christopher Enright, Yuxuan Feng, Matthew Fisher, Brendan Flisk, Jonathan Forss, Neta Friedberg, Shohei Fujikawa, Karl Gaertner, Teddy Galanthay, Lakshmi Galla, Yuchen Gang, Zhan Gao, Claudia Garcia, Nikita Gerard, David Gillette, Ka Mun Goh, Andrew Graber, Kira Graves, Andrew Grigdesby, Kyle Grinnage, Nicholas Hamp-Adams, Mingqi Han, Shafay Haq, Julian Morello Haresco, Sahiyya Harrison, Romil Havewala, Lingxue He, Kyle Heaton, Ryan Hennessee, Christopher Herczeg, Braeden Hesseltine, Eva Highberg, Trevor Hill, Joshua Hobson, Brant Hoggatt, Shunqiao Huang, Ziewi Huang, Summer Huber, Maria Huster, Mark Hyslop, Alexandru Ivan, Kanishk Haresh Jain, Alison [? Quai ?] Jeffries, Junyoung Jeon, Lara Jojo, Haley Jordan, Gwyneth Joseph, Yeon Woo Jung, Sailesh Kandula, William Kang, Chieh Kao, Jacob Kennelly, Arun Kethar, Taehoon Kim, Reid Kippenbrock, Anthony Ko, Hannah Komanapalli, Jordan Korycinski, Courtney Kresi, Grigor Kupchyan, MacKenzie Lamberson, Akash Lankala, Daniel Larken, Ariya Lau, David Lavelle, Jordan Lazzaro, Jieun Lee, Sookyung Lee, Marie Lenart, Jie Li, Junyu Li, Jiaxing Liang, Shichuan Liang, Alan Libby, Diyi Liu, Jinwei Liu, Kai-Hsin Low, Fanglin Luo, Chase Mahurin. Shobhit Makhija, Namaluba Malawo, Erin Renee Meeks, Xianglai Miao, Mark Mikhail, Matthew Milner, Nicholas Mohr, Conner Mohs, Zachary Moore, Hannah Morton, Roshini Mudunuru, Sadie Myers, Nikhil Nandkumar, Nishok Narayanan, Bethany Neeb, Dung Nguyen, Minh Nguyen, Anthony Niemiec, Jiafu Niu, Selin Ovali, Collin Owens, Hung Hsin Pai, Alexa Parker, Punit Patel, Kiran Payne, Chao-Han Peng, Kolten Peterson, Johanna Phillips. Andrew Plank, Avinash Pooruli, Kiran Prabakar, Sougat Pradhan, Navneet Rangarajan, Krithik Rao, Nicholas Raphael, Dhanushikka Ravichandiran, Ian Reidenbach, Bailey Roark, Jasmine Rodney, Raul Rodriguez-Barahona, Christopher Rosenblatt, Luca Ruhlander, Riti Sachdeva, Urbi Saha, Alisa Santiago, Sterling Sardina, Bailey Scott, James Shea, Devon Shook, Travis Simons, Gazal Singh, Harshdeep Singh, Aestha Sinha, Aayushi Sinha. Hunter Small, Haris Sohail, Mihir Somani, Ruoyu Song, Yanlou Song, Nicholas Spano, Alexander Spector, Jacqueline Stanley, Nathan Stelflug, Aditya Subramaniam, David Sun, Xinyu Sun, Brandon Sung, Krishna Suresh, Rilee Taege, Kevin Taha, Hau Han Tan, Efe Tas, Vikas Tatinemi, Pooja Tewari, Jagat Thakkar, Drew Thoennes, Anthony Thomas, Theodore Tobias, Abigail Urnes, Elnard Utiushev, Aman Wali, Andy Wang. Honggan Wang, Xi Wang, Xuechun Wang, Yushan Wang, Melody Weber, Kyle Wessel, Ian Wilson, Brandon Wood, Haoyang Wu, Minghao Xue, Sreekara Yachamaneni, Tanuj Yadav, Xuan Yang, Kevin Yin, Zheng Yin, Jiaying Yuan, Maoyun Yuan, Christopher Zaikos, Adil Zhakypbek, Kuangxiao Zhang, Michael Zhang, Ruoyu Zhang, Joshua Zhao, Kaiyang Zhao, Xinyu Zhao, Keyi Zhu, Liana Zogbi. College of Veterinary Medicine.

19:57 - Emma Dossey Curole, Jeanmarie Hoke, Paige Rogers, Destiny Ulrich, Erin Wooden. MITCHELL ELIAS DANIELS JR: OK, it’s official. You are now graduates of Purdue University. It’s time for you to observe tradition by moving your tassel from the right side of the mortar board to the left, signifying your new status. Congratulations to all our new alums. We honor these graduates for their hard work and accomplishments, but they would be the first to tell us they did not make the journey alone. Will the graduates.

20:33 - Please take this moment to offer thanks and appreciation to your parents, grandparents, spouses, brothers, sisters, and other family members and friends for their long and loving support that brought you to this moment. The audience is invited to sing the Purdue hymn. The words are located inside the front cover of the program. [MUSIC PLAYING] I’m pleased to introduce today’s responder, Simran Bansal Simran is receiving a Bachelor of Science in User Experience Design. And while at Purdue has been active in the student entrepreneurial community, serving as a leader in the Delta Mu Kappa Entrepreneurship and Innovation fraternity.

22:57 - And is founder of the Entrepreneur Campus Event. Please welcome, Simran Bansal. SIMRAN BANSAL: Thank you, President Daniels, for the introduction, and know that I am humbled and honored to be the student responder for this division. I am sure the graduates will join me in thanking the family members, friends, staff, faculty, administrators, and the board of trustees for the support and encouragement that allowed for this amazing experience. Whether you’re watching this on campus, in your pajamas, at home on the couch surrounded by loved ones, or somewhere else, I would like to begin by saying congratulations, we did it. We are officially able to say we are Purdue alumni.

23:37 - Many people told me that college would be the best years of my life. That could not be more of an understatement. Not just because of the friends we have made as boiler makers, but because of the amount of self growth and realization we have had in this nurturing Purdue environment. In preparation for these remarks, I begin to reflect on my time as a Purdue student. And three key takeaways surface as I close this chapter and open the next one.

24:03 - Life is not a linear path, and not everything needs to be planned out. This is laughable to those that know me, because I am extremely organized and create weekly spreadsheets for literally everything. Entering college, I thought I was going to major in Supply Chain Management, graduate, and find employment in the world of business. However, after taking one Purdue math class, I realized that was not the path for me. I spent my first year making memories with friends, but also creating various study plans exploring different areas of interest before electing to major in User Experience Design, which combined my interest in people and technology.

24:38 - I experienced many moments that felt as though I was just at Purdue taking classes and aimlessly wandering through Memorial Mall. I can now truly say as I look back on my past year that I am so grateful for having taken the time to explore my options, and find, and pursue my passion. I learned that sometimes you have to go off roading and take that detour to find your new path. So as Dory the fish from Finding Nemo would say, “just keep swimming.” My second lesson learned is this, giant leaps lead to new experiences.

25:10 - One thing Dory was able to successfully do was swim confidently throughout the sea into new situations. As we enter college, everyone is eager to make friends and join clubs or organizations. Many of us have come from different states or countries and maybe knew a few people, if any, going into college. If there is anything I can truly emphasize from college, it is to never let nervousness about a new opportunity hinder you from participating. With every experience that presents itself if even slightly interested, take a leap to participate.

25:42 - And if you do and didn’t enjoy it, well that was just part of the experience of learning, what you don’t enjoy. From our time as incoming first year students fearing eating alone in a dining court to now, look at how much we have stepped out of our comfort zones and become comfortable with ourselves. By doing so, it has led to a variety of awesome new experiences and opportunities. This brings me to my last point. Though we cannot control the circumstances that we face, we can control our response to it. These past two semesters have definitely been different than previous semesters.

26:15 - Some of us have had the opportunity to spend more time with our family, whether we liked it or not, while others of us have been apart from them since last year’s winter break. Sure, we can use the pandemic as an excuse for why we can’t move forward in life, or we can use it as a motivator to find our purpose. Our Boilermaker community is rooting for us to succeed. Even though our graduation looks a little different than what we imagined when we began at Purdue a few years ago, we join with others as we graduate and step into the real world with more purpose, passion, and potential. Let us remember that tough times don’t last, but tough people do.

26:52 - It’s pretty amazing how much we have all changed since we stepped foot onto campus. On my first day here, I had no idea what bloop or sloop were. I remember thinking most of the senior football players were at least 25 years old. And sadly, I used Google Maps walking directions to tell me how to get from my dorm to the ECE building. Today, I’m proud to report that I know it bloop and sloop are and how to ride them. The football players don’t look older than I do, and I can find any building on campus. Well, for the most part. And if all that’s true, just imagine how different we will all be in two, five, or 10 years from now. As we move into our next phase of life, remember to enjoy the detours, have no regrets, and remain resilient. To the class of 2020, welcome to being a grown-up. Boiler up. [MUSIC PLAYING] MITCHELL ELIAS DANIELS JR: And now Rabbi Michael Harvey will offer the benediction.

32:36 - MICHAEL HARVEY: Friends, join us again in prayer, reflection, or meditation. We offer thanks and gratitude at this time of celebration and transition. This ceremony has acknowledged the great effort by teachers who shared wisdom and insight, and students who came with open minds and creative thoughts. We pray that these students will take their enhanced skills of critical thinking, innovative processes, and enhanced curiosity to apply these skills towards building a stronger, healthier, and more just nation and world. We also pray that the family members and instructors who guided these graduates will continue their vital work in the future.

33:30 - Dear friends, may God bless you and keep you. May God’s face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May God bestow countenance upon you, and grant you peace. And let us say, Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING] We shall go out with joy. We shall go out with Joy. Joy, joy, joy, joy, Joy. MITCHELL ELIAS DANIELS JR: And so we conclude our commencement convocation.

34:16 - Thank you for joining us during these most unusual circumstances, and sharing with us in your celebration, acknowledging your achievements as Boilermakers. We are making it through together. On behalf of the trustees, faculty, and all the Purdue family, I bid you farewell, and godspeed. Hail, Purdue. .