WILLIAMSBURG — Waving to members of the crowd, some jumping with excitement, William & Mary graduates joyfully proceeded into Zable Stadium on Friday evening for the Class of 2024 commencement ceremony.
This was the class that finished high school during the height of the pandemic, when schools shut down and graduations were done by Zoom or in socially distanced ceremonies. Early college classes were online. So this year, these students had plenty to celebrate.
“You have persevered through some serious headwinds to get here tonight,” said William & Mary President Katherine A. Rowe, commending students on their hard work. “We are immensely proud of you.”
William & Mary saw a total of 2,818 graduates — 1,733 undergraduates and 1,085 graduate students — this academic year, including those who received degrees earlier in the year.
For 331 years, William & Mary has prepared its graduates to engage in the exchange of open ideas, Chancellor Robert Gates told the crowd. Gates, who graduated from W&M in 1965, served as defense secretary under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and is a former director of the CIA.
“I’m proud to be a part of this,” said commencement speaker Judge John Charles Thomas, who received an honorary degree Friday. “I saw this resilient and adaptive class four years ago. … I talked to them at that time about being builders for the rest of their lives.”
Thomas, the first Black justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia, spoke about what makes William & Mary unique and the need for continued hard conversations in the country.
“It is the only school of higher education in our country that has a royal charter,” he said, noting the irony that the royal college became a seat of discussions that led to the creation of America as an independent nation.
“The liberal arts, basically, are the skills of freedom,” Thomas continued, referring to the university’s focus on learning to write, think and speak well. “Freedom is the opposite of authoritarianism.”
“You are meant to be builders of the best that America can be,” he said to the graduates, pushing them to batten down the hatches and think hard when others may be daunted by the rough times afoot. He noted that a person can become a bellwether if they “pay attention to the things that are going on around you.”
Correnthia Randolph, who graduated with a master’s degree in education and clinical mental health counseling, was the student speaker.
“It is here in this hour that victory has crowned her victors,” Randolph said. Victory has called each of the graduates from the “sacred battlefield” of education to go into the world and be that voice if we must, she said.
She commended her fellow students for refusing to give in to fear and angst in the face of difficulty on their path to graduation.
“There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Well, here we are at the end of that tunnel,” she said. “The tunnel has come to an end and the light is shining brightly.
“Congratulations, Class of 2024.”
Sam Schaffer, samuel.schaffer@virginiamedia.com
