June 8, 2025
Graduates, family members, alumni, Trustees, distinguished faculty, and university colleagues: Hello, and welcome!
It's a privilege to be here with all of you, especially with those whose accomplishments bring us together today.
Graduates: I know what it took for each of you to arrive at this celebratory stop along your journey. Your commitment, sacrifices, and consistent efforts have culminated in this well-earned recognition, and today, we are here to celebrate you, the DeVry University and Keller Graduate School of Management Class of 2025.
Having attended many lectures during your time here at DeVry, I promise to keep this brief. I am sincerely grateful as this university's president and CEO to stand here and acknowledge your achievements throughout your time with us. In an ambiguous, uncertain and at times volatile world, you stood tall. Even when dedication, sacrifice, and hard work may have gone unrecognized, you continued to show all three and did so with resounding conviction.
Each of you has excelled in your pursuit of higher education, often while taking care of other responsibilities such as family, relationships, and demanding careers. Many of you undertook this educational journey with amazing support from loved ones — parents, partners, friends, children, co-workers, and others. Let us remember that while we gather today to celebrate you, our graduates, we also celebrate those tremendous people in your lives who made this all possible. I ask that we take a moment to pause and recognize those individuals with a round of applause.
While you did not do this alone, you alone did it. Late night after late night, through every setback and surge of momentum, today's recognition is the sum of your resolve, and it is unequivocally yours to claim.
Let the confidence that carried you through exams, deadlines, and personal hurdles continue to guide you forward with the same commitment and belief in yourself that brought you to this milestone.
As you already know, we face enormous challenges within our communities, our nation, and our planet. Life in recent years, and especially throughout your academic journey, has been unpredictable and uncertain. And yet, you have exhibited the resilience, reliability, and consistency that offers HOPE for all of us! Class of 2025, I see before me the state of our future and IT IS STRONG!
For almost 95 years, DeVry University has sought to deliver on its mission to close our society's opportunity gap while addressing emerging talent needs across business, technology, and healthcare sectors. Yet, no matter how well we define a mission, it is only as powerful as the people who bring it to life, and today, that's YOU. Just as DeVry University has strived to never compromise its mission, as you step across this stage to become alumni of this institution, I ask that you commit yourself to never compromising yours as well.
To me, the degrees and certificates you receive today signal three critical attributes you have shown, which I call the three Cs:
First, you have the Capacity and discipline to think critically and to not simply absorb information, but to interrogate and synthesize it into actionable knowledge.
Second, you have the Courage to confront the uncomfortable and be okay with ambiguity or uncertainty, because the world, the workforce, and the future are all full of unknowns.
And third, you have Curiosity, a quality fundamental to lifelong learning and necessary for ongoing success and leadership. Learning is a mental posture that differentiates and redefines the way we live, work, and orient ourselves to the external world. And in a time of constant change, the habit of staying curious may well be your greatest advantage.
Capacity, Courage, and Curiosity are not just markers for academic success but defining traits of change makers as well. Capacity, Courage, and Curiosity will help you shape your contributions to society and the world in the years ahead.
Mastering these three C's requires continual effort and cultivation. I would imagine these attributes were cultivated through lots of effort on your part, along with trial and error, and no small number of moments where quitting might have sounded appealing, especially around weeks four and five of an eight-week session.
Today matters, not because it was easy to get here but precisely because it wasn't. It reminds me of something that Olympic runner Shalane Flanagan once said: "Sometimes the moments that challenge us the most define us." I'm quite sure many of you can relate to that, and I know our commencement speaker, whom you’ll soon hear from and who is an Olympian himself, certainly can.
Make no mistake: Life and learning will continue to challenge you with peaks, valleys, and more than a few occasional and unforeseen hurdles. In those moments, remember the three Cs - Capacity, Courage, and Curiosity. You have them all. Continue to persevere with the sheer grit and determination that got you here today.
Recall Albert Einstein's famous quote: "A human being is part of the whole." Each of you has a unique story, perspective, and a slew of experiences that got you to this point. Sometimes, the most powerful way to honor the uniqueness of our student body is to simply make it visible. Please stand, if you are able, when any of the following descriptors applies to you:
- You are the first in your family to earn a degree or advanced degree...
- You are a parent...
- You worked a part-time or full-time job while attending classes...
- You are a veteran or current member of the military...
- You juggled work and family obligations alongside exams, live lectures, and homework assignments...
Take a look around. You are a group of individuals who are distinct and unique with varied life stories, yet you also have much in common. You've studied late into the night, logged into classes before work, squeezed assignments and exams into weekends that already felt too short, and made other sacrifices that deserve our full recognition.
This ceremony is called a commencement for a reason. It's not about what you have already achieved, it is about what you will accomplish in the future, which starts NOW.
Further, you will benefit from the education you have earned, but the workplaces, communities, cities, states, and even countries where you serve will also gain immensely from your presence and the knowledge you share.
This world desperately needs your work ethic, your creativity, your skill, and your vision. It needs your Capacity, Courage, and Curiosity to be a better place.
Although none of us can predict what tomorrow will bring, we can be certain that change will occur, and we can take one of three positions: We can make things happen, we can watch what happens, or we can wonder what happened. I encourage you to be the kind of leaders who make things happen. Which, frankly, you've already proven yourselves to be.
How do I know this? Because, Class of 2025, you have navigated a global pandemic, economic uncertainty, the emergence of AI, rising cybersecurity threats, and a constant stream of distractions that have challenged your focus. You encountered forces beyond your control, yet you got the job done!
Besides the 3 Cs, I want to leave you with an aviation concept that has stuck with me over the years. It's called "the two-degree shift."
How many of you have flown in a commercial aircraft? (Raise hand). Have you ever thought about how pilots ensure we all get to where we expect to be after boarding an airplane?
When a pilot takes off from Chicago and heads to San Francisco, for example, they follow a carefully calculated flight plan. But what happens if their heading is off by just two degrees at takeoff? Well, the plane won't land in San Francisco, that's for sure. If that heading wasn't corrected shortly after takeoff, the plane could end up in Seattle, Los Angeles, or who knows where else.
My point is this. Any small margin of variation from a plan produces a drastically different outcome. Experienced pilots know this and expect variations. They don't target perfection they anticipate corrections. They make constant adjustments and shifts in headings to account for variations in weather, wind, traffic, turbulence, and other factors. Two-degree changes, made deliberately and repeatedly, are what bring the plane safely to its intended destination.
So, it is with life. In an era of life hacks, quick wins, and curated highlight reels on Instagram, Tik-Tok or Facebook, we are often fed the idea that success is immediate. That's not reality!
I have botched enough baking recipes to assure you, shortcuts don't always get you the desired outcome. Graduates, you will need to continue to work hard and build on your Capacity, Courage, and Curiosity to counteract "two-degree shifts" that could take you off your course toward continued success.
Again, pilots face variations like turbulence and rapid-forming weather systems, yet they get us to our destinations. Similarly, you will encounter obstacles in your ongoing journeys from which you will "course correct" and learn. You will face tailwinds, headwinds, and crosswinds through which, like any good pilot, you will adeptly navigate, maneuver, and succeed with the knowledge you gained here at DeVry.
I advise you to keep the concept of the "two-degree shift" front and center.
Even the most skilled pilots don’t fly alone — they rely on ground crews, flight paths, instruments, and sometimes, the calm voice of someone guiding them from afar.
The same is true for you. As you look ahead, remember:
You will always be part of the DeVry University's Alumni community — a network of learners, professionals, and leaders who understand the path you've walked and stand ready to walk with you into the future. Whatever your next steps may be — advancing your career, exploring new opportunities, continuing your education, or simply figuring out what comes next, know you don’t have to do it alone. The support you received as a student doesn't end today; it simply takes a new form through our alumni network and Career Compact. Your mentors, advisors, professors, and fellow students who became friends take pride in your achievement and remain, along with all of us here today, committed to your continued success.
We are all proud to have walked this part of the journey with you and are standing ready to remain by your side for as long as you need us — Congratulations Class of 2025, YOU DID IT!
