St. Bonaventure University’s graduates are relishing the ability to have full, in-person celebrations to mark the end of their college careers this month.
The Class of 2022 is the only undergraduate class at the university that has experienced a full year, its freshman year, without COVID-19 restrictions.
The university’s 162nd Commencement Exercises will be held at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, May 15, in the Reilly Center Arena.
Senior class president Charlie Randall of New Milford, Pennsylvania, said missing out on almost two years of a full college experience was discouraging for him and his classmates, but they aim to close out their senior year with some fun.
The class was the largest in a decade when it entered Bonaventure as freshmen in 2018, and the students became involved in clubs, athletics and community service. An active senior year will be the perfect bookend to their college careers.
“Overall, this year has been tremendous for the Class of 2022 and even though I wish it wasn’t coming up so soon, I speak for everyone when I say we are looking forward to the memories we will make during Commencement Week,” said Randall.
He thanked fellow officers VP Matthew O’Donoghue, Secretary Saloni Chadha, Treasurer Bridget O’Hern, Senator Camille Spurlock, and Senator Jack Steger, “all of whom worked tirelessly to achieve our goals as a class.”
As part of graduation celebrations, each of the university’s five schools is holding its own Honors and Awards Ceremony. Senior Week events include a picnic, banquet and reception with faculty and staff.
On Friday, May 13, the 26th annual Candlelight Induction Ceremony will be held in the Plassmann/Swan quad at 8:45 p.m., as students are formally welcomed into the alumni family.
Activities on Saturday, May 14, include the ROTC Military Science Commissioning Ceremony at 10 a.m. in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, the Multicultural Stole Ceremony at 11:30 a.m. in the Reilly Center Arena, and Baccalaureate Mass at 4 p.m. in the arena.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Class of 1991, will deliver the keynote Commencement address. ESPN’s Senior NBA Insider, Wojnarowski has been honored three times as the National Sports Media Association’s Sportwriter of the Year.
Wojnarowski will receive an honorary doctorate, as will Tom Marra, ’80, retired president and CEO of Symetra Financial Corp., and Brigadier Gen. Maureen K. LeBoeuf (ret.), ’76, the first woman to chair a department at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
For more information about Commencement, go to www.sbu.edu/Commencement. Many of the events will be livestreamed at https://video.ibm.com/channel/st-bonaventure-university-live-stream.
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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. St. Bonaventure was named the #5 regional university value in the North in U.S. News and World Report’s 2022 college rankings edition.