Commencement season a time for colleges to reflect, celebrate

For colleges and universities throughout the country, this is an especially important time of year. It is a time when we all take a step back from the day-to-day operations on our campuses to appreciate the true reason why we love being a part of higher education.

Over the past two weeks and in the weeks to come, the institutions from the Consortium of Colleges on the Creative Coast celebrate the accomplishments of more than 3,000 regional students who have earned their degrees and will move on in their careers, graduate school and the next chapter of their lives.

This also is a significant time of year for the businesses and organizations in our community and across the globe. This transition from campus to careers provides an influx of highly trained graduates for businesses. These future leaders are eager to launch their careers, and are filled with a thirst for additional knowledge and a drive to prove their worth and showcase their talents.

From business and hospitality to graphic design and biology, New College of Florida, Ringling College of Art and Design, State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, FSU/The Ringling and USF Sarasota-Manatee prepare graduates to enter the workforce in a wide variety of disciplines and industries.

This monumental occasion in the lives of our students creates the perfect platform to reflect and celebrate the successes of these individuals and our institutions.

This will be the 51st commencement ceremony for New College of Florida and will mark the first time in the college’s history that it will confer master’s degrees. The college’s first students graduated in 1967. Nearly 200 are expected to walk at New College’s commencement ceremony this year, to be held at 7 p.m. May 26 on the College’s Bayfront. This year’s commencement speaker and recipient of an honorary degree, will be the noted composer and scholar, George E. Lewis, who is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University.

Five FSU students in residence this semester at The Ringling graduated last week in Tallahassee, where they received master’s degrees in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies, adding to the history of the arts-rich culture in our region and throughout the state.

State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, celebrated throughout the day on May 5 as graduation ceremonies began at 10 a.m. for the State College of Florida Collegiate School. This is the first year students who started at the Collegiate School in the sixth grade were eligible to graduate. It also marked the fourth year the school has held commencement ceremonies, in which students receive their high school diplomas in the morning and their Associate in Arts degrees from SCF in the evening.

In the afternoon, four dozen graduates of SCF’s nursing program received their nursing pins and participated in the International Pledge for Nurses. The grand finale came Friday evening, when 370 of the 885 students eligible to graduate from SCF came together to celebrate in their commencement ceremony. Crossing the stage at the Bradenton Area Convention Center were recipients of more than 40 bachelor degrees, 250 Associate in Arts degrees and 75 Associate in Science degrees.

Ringling College of Art and Design celebrated its 2017 Commencement on May 11, graduating 250 of the world’s future creative leaders. Embarking on their careers, regionally to globally, Ringling graduates are celebrating new starts with companies and brands like Nickelodeon, gaming giant Respawn, and Google, among others. Speaking at this year’s ceremony was the world’s first astronaut to paint in space, Nicole Stott, a creative who embodies left- and right-brained thinking at the intersection of art and science. Having spent more than 100 days in space, Nicole has a different perspective — one which she shared with the new graduates—and she urged graduates to take care of the planet and stay open to new ideas.

And at USFSM, we celebrated the graduation of members of our inaugural freshman class who came to campus four years ago, forever changing the history of our university. These students have elevated student life, been involved in their communities and blazed the trail for a new option for local high school students to consider when deciding where to earn their four-year college degrees. Overall, more than 350 degrees were awarded including 66 graduate-level degrees. We are also excited to welcome many of the SCF students who will transfer to USFSM this fall after earning their associate’s degree just over a week ago.

Although each of our institutions is uniquely different from one another, we all share the common values of education and student success, and nothing celebrates those shared values better than commencement season.

To all of our graduating students, congratulations and best wishes. We know you will continue to positively represent our institutions and our community in your next chapters as you did during your time on campus.

This story was originally published May 12, 2017 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Commencement season a time for colleges to reflect, celebrate."