UC celebrates record graduating class at commencement

The University of Cincinnati celebrated its largest graduating class in its 205-year history during three days of commencement ceremonies.

Thousands of friends and family filled Fifth Third Arena on Saturday for the last of four ceremonies honoring the spring class of 2024.

In his commencement address, UC President Neville Pinto noted that the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 forced the cancellation of many high school graduations across the country.

“I recognize that for some of you, this is your first graduation ceremony,” he said. “So I want you to have a fun and enjoy this for both graduations.”

Pinto quoted 1980s cultural icon Ferris Bueller in urging graduates to embrace the important things: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Pinto told graduates to make time for themselves to think and reflect — moments of mental rest that creative geniuses from Albert Einstein to Lin Manuel Miranda credit for their greatest inspirations.

And he closed with the abiding philosophy of writer Henry David Thoreau, who spent two years contemplating the world from a tiny cabin next to a Massachusetts pond: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived.”

UC conferred 7,521 degrees to 7,391 students during its spring commencement. (Some students earned multiple degrees.) Both represent new records dating back two centuries at UC for a single graduating class, based on preliminary figures from UC's Office of Institutonal Research.

UC awarded 539 associate degrees, 4,549 baccalaureate degrees, 252 doctoral degrees, 1,886 master’s degrees, 3 micro-credentials and 292 professional certificates.

This year 15% of graduates are first-generation college students. And 210 students come from Cincinnati Public Schools. Nearly 3% of grads are U.S. veterans or dependents of veterans.

New this year, three students graduated from UC’s micro-credentialing program as electronic health records specialists. UC also celebrated its first spring graduating class in the new master’s of legal studies program.

The spring class of 2024 has the largest-ever percentage of master’s and doctoral graduates, representing more than 28% of graduates. And nearly 15% of grads participated through distance learning programs.

Graduates hail from 84 of Ohio’s 88 counties, a new record. They come from all 50 states and 81 countries as far away as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Philippines and Japan.

In her student address to undergraduates, UC College of Engineering and Applied Science graduate Ritika Joshi said her classmates all belong to a special community.

“Each of us has embarked on our own wild ride, navigating twists, turns and unexpected detours to arrive on this incredible day,” she said. “Here we are today, united as Bearcats and bound by our victories.”

Joshi, a computer science major, referenced UC's motto, Juncta Juvant, or strength through unity.

“UC has prepared us for the global stage with the empowering mantra Next Lives Here by providing transformative co-ops, global opportunities, cutting-edge research and lifelong connections through student organizations,” she said. “We are eternally grateful for these invaluable experiences.”

UC Board of Trustees Chairman Phil Collins congratulated graduates on behalf of the board. He is a 1989 graduate of the Lindner College of Business.

“Our board views commencement as the most important day in the life of the university,” Collins said. “There has never been a better time to be a Bearcat.”

Collins offered grads some advice from personal experience.

“I strongly encourage you to stay close to the friends you made here,” he said. “I have come to learn there is something very special about the friends you make in college and if you invest in those relationships, they're a lifelong gift.

“There has never been a better time to be a Bearcat,” he said.

The Board of Trustees awarded a Doctor of Arts and Humane Letters Honoris Causa to UC graduate and standout soccer player Timothy Brown, co-founder and chief innovation officer for the sustainable shoe and clothing company Allbirds.

Board of Trustees member Michelle “Shelly” Gillis presented the honorary degree to Brown “for his deep understanding of the study of design, his expertise in entrepreneurship and his commitment to sustainability.”

Brown studied graphic design in UC's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning before turning pro, playing for the Richmond Kickers in Virginia, the Newcastle Jets in Australia and the Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand.

“A quarter century ago, you followed a soccer scholarship 8,000 miles from New Zealand to Cincinnati to chase a childhood dream,” Pinto said.

At UC, Pinto said, Brown developed the entrepreneurial spirit that would inspire him to create a publicly traded company valued today at $1 billion.

“Later, as vice captain for the New Zealand All Whites, you led your soccer team to the pinnacle of success, the FIFA World Cup,” he said.

Brown used his experience as a professional athlete and designer to make what Time magazine called “the world’s most comfortable shoe.” Allbirds uses natural and sustainable fibers like wool.

Pinto referenced UC's strategic direction called Next Lives Here in praising Brown's accomplishments.

“Tim Brown, you are the embodiment of what 'next' truly is: innovative, entrepreneurial, future-focused and socially conscious,” Pinto said.

Pinto surprised UC College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services Dean Lawrence Johnson with the President's Award for Excellence. Pinto said it marks just the fourth such award he has presented during his seven years as president.

“I consider it the highest honor that I can bestow as a president,” Pinto said. 

Under Johnson, the college has seen its enrollment triple in size over the past two decades.

Johnson is known to many at UC for hosting an annual back-to-school barbecue on UC's Uptown Campus. Pinto announced that the site of those welcome-back parties is now called the Lawrence J. Johnson Lawn. 

“What we will miss most about you doesn't come from your kitchen. It comes from your heart,” Pinto said. “It is your leadership, your compassion and your love for learning.”

Pinto also recognized students Shelby Hetzer, Mia Morales, Rebekah Littlepage, Lance Entsuah, Gibin Mannathikulathil Raju and Maya Goertemoeller, recipients of UC's Presidential Leadership Medal of Student Excellence.

Carl H. Lindner College of Business graduate Cesseli Chambers-Thacker presented the student address to her classmates during the Doctoral Hooding and Master's Recognition Ceremony.

“Some of us are the first in our families to reach this milestone while others come from a long line of scholars,” she said.

“Though our paths may differ, they converge at this triumphant moment of unity. We stand together not only as graduates but as resilient individuals and architects of change, laying a foundation for a just and sustainable global society,” she said.

“At the University of Cincinnati, 'Next Lives Here,' which means we are next. Congratulations, Bearcats! We did it.”

UC College-Conservatory of Music student Jadyn Riggs sang the national anthem and led graduates in the singing of the Alma Mater backed by the UC Bearcat Band.

UC graduates such as Raya Fitch missed out on celebrating their high school graduations in 2020 after the pandemic prompted the cancellation of public events.

Fitch studied political science in UC's College of Arts and Sciences. She said it was important both to her and her family to celebrate her accomplishments together in person now that they could.

“It means a lot to me,” she said. 

UC Blue Ash nursing student Madeline Martin posed for photos for her family in the plaza outside Fifth Third Arena. She and her classmates likewise missed out on her high school graduation in 2020, she said.

“I didn't get to walk in graduation, so this is extra special," she said.

“She got her diploma from the principal in her driveway," her mom added.