Families and friends of nearly 3,000 new Boise State University graduates celebrated their pinnacle academic achievement with a commencement ceremony Saturday, May 6. This spring, 2,960 Boise State students were eligible for graduation, qualifying for 3,510 degrees or certificates.
“Love is such a powerful and infinite thing, and I believe it’s what keeps this world spinning,” said student speaker Zack Tyree, a graduate in kinesiology from Missoula, Montana. “You have no idea what is going on in someone else’s life, and showing love and compassion to a complete stranger could make a difference that you will never know. It could make their day, maybe their month, you never know if your act of kindness and love could change the trajectory of their life. It costs nothing in this world to love.”
Boise State President Marlene Tromp spoke of graduates transitioning into their next phase of life, using Danaan Parry’s Parable of the Trapeze.
“When we release our grip on the trapeze bar of the past, but before our hand has grasped the next bar, we are in what he has called the “transition zone” — that’s the time when we are airborne, flying through space without the certainty and security of the bar for which we are reaching out next,” said Tromp, herself a first-generation college graduate. “Today, I challenge you in periods of hardship to keep going, to keep growing, to take on the next challenge and the next one. I want to tell you that you can take your unique knowledge and talents, that combination of qualities that only you can bring, and make your extraordinary destiny. All the challenges have prepared you to do more. Broncos, this is your charge: Let go of that trapeze bar and fly!”
This group of graduates joins more than 167,000 living alumni of Boise State.