Hi, I'm Paul LeBlanc President of Southern
Hampshire University but you probably could have guessed that from this getup I'm wearing today.
It's a special day it's the day in which I get to welcome you to the spring Commencement Virtual
Ceremony. I'm doing so from the campus in our Green Center for Student Success. It's a wonderful
building. it's one of the four original buildings on campus when we came here in 1968. We've been
around since 1932, but we finally had our own campus and what I love about this building is not
only this beautiful renovation that's occurred but the fact that it houses so many of the offices
that support our students and lead to their well-being, their flourishing, and helps them get
to the finish line. So these are offices like our International Student Success Office our Veterans
Lounge our Women's Center our Diversity Office, Academic Advising, Res Life and all of that adds
up to this incredible commitment by our faculty and staff to all of our students, whether they're
here on campus or whether they join us online or from one of our remote sites around the globe. Why
are we here? Commencement! The day of Celebration! And this is one that's pretty poignant for
me this is my last. I've been here 21 years, my first graduation was in 2003 and
that year we had 1,803 graduates. One ceremony. This year we have 16,000 graduates
we will have four ceremonies here in Manchester we'll do seven more virtually. It's an amazing
celebration of success from from all of you. While our earlier graduations were a lot
smaller, some things remain true. Our students then and our students today they
have enormous resolve. They're gritty they persevere. They can do this hard work of
juggling busy lives often with children, full-time jobs, sometimes in the military
and also studying and being a student and getting across that finish line. They
do so with Incredible smarts. So I've been incredibly proud to be your President
these last 21 years. It's been the honor of a lifetime. I want to thank you
for that and now we want to get these ceremonies started. Let us begin. Well done! Great! [Applause] Hi and welcome! Congratulations, we've done it.
Breathe in the sweet smell of success because we did it. We did what we had to do to cross that
finish line and dang does it feel good. Despite various struggles we face mentally, physically,
or academically, we charged forward. Your path may have been like mine or different but no matter
what, you sacrificed. You made it. Why SNHU? it is a question we have all pondered at one
point or another as we are closing this chapter of obtaining something that was once a distant
dream. Throughout our time at SNHU, we formed bonds that transcend boundaries of geography,
culture, and background. I've been inspired by the diverse ideas, the supportive community,
and the relentless pursuit of excellence that defines SNHU. It wasn't just about the knowledge
gained, it was about the newfound confidence, the resilience, I discovered within myself.
I learned invaluable qualities about myself, such as my level of tenacity and perseverance.
Embrace what makes you special and wear it fearlessly as you enter whatever comes next.
Fear is a choice. Just because we feel it, does not mean we have to choose it. Go
for that next degree, go for that job that you're "not qualified for." There may
be challenges that you come across in life, but all you have to do is learn to adapt or a way
that works best for you and you can accomplish it. We have all been granted an amazing opportunity
to use our education to change the world. Let our collective experiences challenges and triumphs
Inspire us to approach the future with creativity, adaptability, and a relentless pursuit
of excellence. My advice for my fellow graduates is to forever persevere. You don't
ever have to stop. Never stop dreaming, never stop reaching for the stars. And wield the wealth
of knowledge, the breath of skills and the depth of our abilities to to achieve greatness in all
our endeavors. Approach your future goals with the determination and consistency you did in pursuing
your degree and there is no limit to what your future holds. Way to go class of 2024! Our future
is bright and our journey is just beginning. [Bagpiper Music] Good morning. Good morning! All right! It's
a gray day outside but it's a great day to graduate! Welcome to Spring 2024 Commencement.
My name is Dr Jennifer Teague Executive Director of Business Programs. Although you didn't
process into the arena today we would like to acknowledge the faculty and graduates of
each program. I have the honor of recognizing our first group. Would the faculty and graduates
of Southern New Hampshire University's Business Programs please rise if you're able and remain
standing so we can celebrate you. [Applause] President LeBlanc, distinguished guests,
faculty, and administration, families, colleagues, and friends, please join me in
welcoming our newest graduates. [Applause] Our Business graduates will enter more complex,
dynamic interconnected and technology-driven organizations than any graduates before them.
Through their studies in business administration, accounting, management, finance and
economics, human resource management, marketing, operations, and project management,
organizational leadership and sport management, and their real world experiences, these
graduates have acquired the knowledge, skills, professional dispositions, and
competencies necessary to operate effectively in an uncertain and often volatile Global
Marketplace. Today these graduates transition from being yesterday's business students
to tomorrow's business leaders. [Applause] I would like to thank our faculty, our
associate deans, academic advisers, and staff who have contributed to the
success of our Business Program students. Congratulations to the newest graduates of
Southern New Hampshire University's business programs! Please be seated. Good morning graduates, you look marvelous. I'm
Lisa Marsh Ryerson, University Provost at SNHU and it is my true honor, and great pleasure to
welcome all of the families, friends, faculty, staff, and of course our graduates who
are with us here today or watching via live stream. We are thrilled to be celebrating
the Southern New Hampshire University class of 2024! And now if you're able,
I'd ask that you would please rise for the singing of our National
Anthem, sung this morning by one of this morning's graduates Myrna Pierre.
[Applause] Oh say can you see? By the dawn's early light? What so
proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. Whose broad stripes
and bright stars, through the perilous fight, over the ramparts we
watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting
in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave! The brave! Myrna, thank you, wow! What a
way to begin our commencement exercises. This year we have graduates from all 50
states and US territories. From 49 countries and a wide range of cultures and faith traditions. And
our ceremony takes place on the ancestral lands of the Abanaki nation, in a city, Manchester, built
on the backs of immigrants and working people. So now let's take a moment together in silence,
whether in simple contemplation or prayer, remember that our success has its
roots with those who came before us, including loved ones no longer with us.
Let them always be present in our hearts. [Moment of Silence] Thank you. And now to get us started, it's
my great honor to introduce our platform party. I'll ask you to stand when I read your
name or your group and please remain standing throughout the introductions. Leading this
morning's procession was our mace bearer Dr Anthony Siciliano and representatives from
the SNHU Board of Trustees, Rick Banks, and Luis Lopez. [Applause] Representatives from
the academic and executive leadership teams of the university, our alumni speaker
and our student speaker, we are honored that you're all
with us this morning. Please be seated. It's always a great pleasure to acknowledge and thank our longtime
closed caption provider Deborah Knapp and our amazing sign language interpreters
Heather Geisser and Kristen Chenoweth-Curty. And finally it is an extraordinary
honor for me to introduce to you the President of Southern New
Hampshire University, Dr Paul J LeBlanc. And before before I invite you to join
me at the podium, I want to take a few moments to recognize Paul. As many of you know, in December
Paul announced that he would be stepping down from his role as president at Southern New Hampshire
University and the ceremonies this weekend will be his last. Paul has been our President at Southern
New Hampshire University for 21 incredible years. [Applause] And under Paul's leadership SNHU has transformed from a small regional
university to an internationally known leader in higher education. Having grown from 2,500
students to more than 250,000 learners today. Like many of us in this room, Paul is a first
generation college graduate. He immigrated to the United States from Canada when he was 3 years
old. His parents, both of whom had eighth grade educations, worked tirelessly to care for
the family. The youngest of five children, Paul was the first person in his extended family
to attend and graduate college. This experience fueled his vision, his passion, his drive to make
higher education more affordable, more accessible and higher quality for all learners. And in the 21
years that Paul has been our President, more than 200,000 students have earned their SNHU degrees.
At SNHU We are proud of each and every one of you, of all students we serve. And we often talk
about the importance of the ripple effects of earning a college degree. Paul, your leadership
your commitment, your passion for accessible, affordable high quality higher education has
caused far more than ripples. Our president Paul has inspired and led waves of impact and changed
the lives of thousands of people around the world. So to honor you and continue Paul's great work I
am proud to share with you this morning that we have established the Paul J LeBlanc scholarship
to help first generation students achieve their dreams. And as President LeBlanc embarks on
his next journey, which we all can't wait hear more about, we know it will be
incredible. I know that on behalf Paul and the entire SNHU Community, we extend
our deepest gratitude for your leadership, your inspiration, your love, and
unwavering commitment to our learners. Now please join me in recognizing and
welcoming President Paul J LeBlanc! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.
Thank you. I love you too and I promised I'm going to hold it together till
the end of the end of the day, today so forgive me. This is how special
you are I wore my favorite Air Force Ones the fancy ones with the initials PL on them.
Also guys there's a lot of you and I'm going to be standing for a long time handing diplomas
the best part of the day. I want to at least acknowledged our sign interpreters and I love
Heather and Kristen and we've worked together for a long time and they gave me permission to do
this, but I'm a lover of language. I'm an ardent defender of the Oxford comma, I actually think
you should never end sentence with a preposition, and I think sign language is the most beautiful
form of communication. So if you watch the screen and those of you who can't see, turn and watch,
we're going to demonstrate just how beautiful this language is. When the most handsome and smart
group of graduates in America sit here today, all across the universe, stars go flying across
the sky, elephants raise their trunks in song, I mean raise their trunks in song, monkeys
in the jungle flap their arms in happiness and joy and whales leap out of the water,
leap out of the water and turn somersaults in celebration of our graduates. Isn't
that beautiful? That is a beautiful language. I got to meet some of you beforehand as
I was wandering around and I've been thinking that if you'll have have me I'm going to claim to be
graduating from SNHU today after 21 years and I said how long's it taken you? And there like, it
took me 30, it took me 22. I was like okay you got me beat. I have it all right. We all took our
journey and this has been an incredible place. The medallion would have given it away that I'm the
President and I always joked that I would know when my time had come because all the names of
my predecessors are on the back with their dates and mine's on there now it's like uh oh I guess
I can't change my mind I'm leaving. Do you know who the next President is? It's Lisa Ryerson our
Provost and she, Lisa is a friend of 27 years, an experienced College President, she headed the
ARP Foundation she was on our board, she's been our Provost for two years, and she absolutely
shares an unwavering faith in our mission, our values, our people, our students, she never
ever, ever, gives gives up on people and she will be an amazing leader at this institution
and I am looking forward to cheering her on. Graduations are happening all over the
country, those are often fraught right now, I've been watching the news. This graduation
is amazing to me and it is every year because when I look out on this audience, I see
America at its best. I see every race, every faith tradition, every political belief,
I see veterans, I see mothers and fathers and grandparents I see people have never given up.
I know people in this audience who did time and came out and prove that you can redeem yourself
that there is such a thing as redemption in America. Every version of grit and resilience is
on display here. I walked around as I said earlier and I'm going to be a grandfather for the first
time next month, my wife and I, so I can't resist a baby right now so I've been holding babies at
all these graduation ceremonies, but when I hold someone's baby for a moment I think the world
begins anew. With every new child the world begins anew in terms of possibility and all of you who
are sitting here, in fact, wave your arms if you have kids. If you're graduating today look at that
I mean look around right? What you are doing for your children today, is so important! Not just in
terms of the opportunities that start to open up for you with your degree, but for the role model
that you become. That they look and say my mom, my dad, college graduate. You have the
power of that is amazing. So we applaud and celebrate your accomplishment. I was
thinking about graduations I started to say and I told the story from time to time,
we used to have a branch campus in Brunswick, Maine and on the highway there was a sign that
said Bowdoin College Southern New Hampshire University. And the trustees at Bowdoin which is
a wonderful little University, it's very wealthy, very selective, pretty pampered. The trustees come
in and said why are we on a sign with this place called Southern New Hampshire University and
they started politicking to separate the sign and I really got a little prickly about the whole
thing like who do you think they are like they're not deserve like we don't deserve to be on the
sign with you all and then I was thinking about it you know the average SNHU student before
a Bowdoin student even gets up has sent their kids to school packed lunches got the house back
in order got to work and they have been at their desk as that Bowdoin students wandering across
campus to get that late brunch or breakfast before class the average SNHU student who's serving
has done more in a day than some of those students do in a semester there are wonderful
students at Bowdoin for sure but I would not trade an SNHU student for a student at any other
university in America. This morning you are the best. [Applause] Now I will finish with a
couple of things before I I want to talk a little bit about the examples of people in
this room because I've been talking about myself and I apologize I need to talk
about Jeffrey is in the audience in the graduates today. He's an Air Force veteran
he's a great-grandfather great-grandfather graduating today with a degree that is
45 years in the making he took his first college course in 1980 and he struggled
with academics, well many of us do, put a study on hold for a lot of years and then
to fulfill that dream, he enrolled at SNHU. Today he earns his BS in Business Administration
at age 64 with a 3.8 GPA. Jeffrey Smart! There's Paloma. Paloma came to us through our
partnership with Walmart. For half a year, Paloma faced challenges with basic
needs. Paloma lived in her car. She often slept in the Walmart parking lot
and to create a better life for herself she worked three jobs while studying here
at SNHU. Today she earns her BS in computer science and she goes from working in
clothing to working in computer networks as a network architect. Pretty amazing! Pedro,
another Walmart student who immigrated to the US from Cape Verde at age 18 in just five years
he made that move he learned English and he earns his BS in Business Administration
today. Amazing! Just 5 years, all of that. Then there's Bobby, I'll finish with Bobby,
a marine, a father, a musician in the 116th Army National Guard band. Bobby enrolled with us after
his wife encouraged him to pick his education back up and he completed a journey today that's been
25 years in the making. Throughout the years he worked on his SNHU studies during downtime at
in the service, after work at his daughter's dance competitions, even on family vacations.
Bobby shared with us that on a recent family trip to Disney while waiting in line for 147
minutes for Big Thunder Mountain, he managed to write a discussion board post and respond to two
classmates before it was time to get on the roller coaster. Hey Bobby, you know what
you're not going to do tonight at 5 minutes of midnight you're not hitting
the send button on your last assignment. Remarkable. Now I will finish but I need
to take one minute because in so many of the conversations as you all were coming in and
I heard about advisers. I heard about financial aid specialists. I heard about admissions
counselors who you stay in touch with even after they were no longer in the admissions
process. And story after story and I heard about faculty who rescued, who came to help
you when you were struggling with something, story after story after story, I am reminded that
I get to work with some of the best human beings in higher education. This staff, this faculty,
runs through walls for our students and I want to take a minute to recognize them and applaud them.
I'm so honored to have them as my colleagues. [Applause] They are a remarkable group. At each of our ceremonies, a student
speaker is chosen through a selection process led by a university committee.
We have 5,000 graduates participating in our virtual ceremonies this Spring and
we're pleased to have our chosen speaker, Owen Adams from Sacramento, California. Owen
is a US Army veteran that hit a rough patch and he was incarcerated for 10 years,
but during that time he fell in love with psychology and acquired three
Associates Degrees. When he was released, he came to SNHU to continue his education to
help others with their battle with addiction. Today, he graduates with his Bachelor of
Arts in Psychology Summa Cum Laude. We are are so proud that Owen is part of our
SNHU community. Please welcome Owen Adams. Welcome President LeBlanc, Board of
Trustees, esteemed faculty, staff, proud family members, friends,
and my fellow SNHU graduates. Today we gather to celebrate not just
the culmination of years of hard work, but the triumph of the human spirit over
adversity. Each of us has had a unique journey that has led us to this moment, but what unites us
all is our unwavering determination to reach this milestone despite the obstacles we have faced.
As a formerly incarcerated individual myself, I stand before you as living proof that no
challenge is insurmountable with perseverance and the power of education. Southern New Hampshire
University has provided us with more than just a degree, it has given us the tools to rewrite our
stories and re-define our futures. For some of us higher education has been a beacon of hope in
the darkest of times offering a path to redemption and a chance to break free from the shackles of
our past. It has taught us that our worth is not defined by our mistakes, but by our resilience
and our commitment to self-improvement. As we stand on the precipice of new beginnings, let us
never forget the value of our education and the opportunities it affords us. It is a privilege
denied to many and we must honor it by striving for excellence in all aspects of our lives. Let
us be guided by the knowledge that our potential is limitless and that with dedication and hard
work we can achieve anything we set our minds to. But our journey does not end here. As we venture
forth into the world, we must remember those who are still struggling, those who may feel trapped
in the darkness of their circumstances. We must be the light that guides them offering support,
encouragement, and empathy. We must use our education not only to better our own lives but
to uplift others and create positive change in our communities. So as we embark on this new
chapter, let us never lose sight of our dreams. Let us embrace the challenges that lie ahead
with courage and determination let us continue to push the boundaries of what is possible, and to
strive for greatness in everything we do, and let us always remember that no matter how difficult
the road may seem, we are never alone. We are a testament to the power of the human spirit and
together we can illuminate even the darkest corners of the world. Congratulations class of
2024, the future is bright and it is ours for the taking! [Applause] Okay, there's one last piece we have to do,
Provost Ryerson will join me, we have to read some legal language my first year I forgot there's
a whole class of people who don't really actually have their degrees but they think they do, I don't
want that happening to you so Lisa take it away! Will the recipients of associate's, bachelor's,
and masters degrees please rise? [Applause] President LeBlanc, the candidates standing
before you have successfully completed the course of studies prescribed
by the faculty of Southern New Hampshire University and have fulfilled all
requirements for their chosen curricula. Now the legal language, by the authority
vested in me by the Board of Trustees of Southern New Hampshire University and by the
general court of the State of New Hampshire, I hereby confer the degrees of International
Master of Business Administration, Master of Arts, Master of Business Administration,
Master of Education, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Science and Nursing, Master
of Public Health, Master of Science, Bachelor of Applied Science, Bachelor of
Arts, Bachelor of Business Administration, and Bachelor of Science, Associate of
Applied Science, Associate in Arts, and Associate in Science with all
rights honors and privileges there too. Congratulations graduates please be
seated we will get this party started! [Applause] It's now my pleasure to introduce
our Alumni Board Vice President, Gloria Lee. Gloria, please come to the podium. Love it. Hello, congratulations to our
newest graduates of Southern New Hampshire University. [Applause] On behalf of
the Alumni Board of Directors I am honored to officially welcome you to the
SNHU Alumni Association. Today more than 250,000 SNHU alumni from around the world
congratulate you on your success and hope you will become an active part of the SNHU alumni
community. So as you continue to celebrate your achievements, remember there may be another
SNHU graduate at your workplace or living right right next door to you. Seek out and lean in
to your vast Alumni network. Congratulations and good luck on your next chapter, we cannot
wait to see what you'll accomplish next. Congratulations. [Applause] So now it's time for a really important ritual
in higher education. It's the turning of your tassel. When you earn your associate's or your
bachelor's degrees you move your tassel from the right side of your cap to the left side of your
cap. I'll ask now for all of our associate's or bachelor's degrees graduates to please stand
to participate in this ceremony. Are you ready graduates? 3-2-1 Congratulations graduates! [Applause] [Music] Please join me in thanking members
of the New Hampshire Pipes and Drums for playing during this afternoon's commencement exercise. Our recessional will begin with the Call
of the Bag Pipers, followed by our platform party, our faculty, and then the graduates. Thank you
and Congratulations to the SNHU class of 2024! [Bagpiper Music]
