Largest graduating class honored at UVU 2022 commencement
For the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, friends and family members packed the UCCU center for a commencement ceremony Friday night as graduates filed in wearing their emerald-green caps and gowns.
Utah Valley University’s class of 2022 not only managed to earn their degrees during the uncertainty and hardship of a global pandemic, but they also turned out to represent the university’s largest graduating class yet — two accomplishments that could only be celebrated in true UVU style, with a bang.
“The class of 2022 is mighty in spirit and in numbers. Tonight we celebrate 11,064 students who have earned a total of 14,431 degrees,” said Astrid S. Tuminez, president of UVU. “You are the largest graduating class in UVU’s 81-year history.”
The UVU class of 2022 received 4,290 bachelor’s degrees, 4,544 associate degrees, 328 master’s degrees, 5,227 certificates or diplomas and 42 graduate certificates. Graduates came from every Utah county, 44 states and territories, and 21 countries.
According to Tuminez, UVU is not just a place for those who fit the typical college student mold, but rather a place for all who have the determination to reach their educational goals.
“At UVU, we share an open invitation to all students to come as you are, come from wherever you’re from and bring your dreams,” Tuminez said. “As we like to say, there’s a place for you at UVU.”
This group of graduates seemed to be the actualization of Tuminez’s words. The youngest member of the UVU class of 2022 was just 16, and the oldest was 77. Forty percent of the class of 2022 was over the age of 25, and 35% were first-generation students.
Karen Magaña-Aguado, UVU student body president, was one of those first-generation students.
“I am the daughter of Mexican immigrants who pushed me to pursue education in all the ways I had access to it,” she said. “My parents and siblings have given me everything they could so that I had the tools to pursue my wildest dreams, but I didn’t know that immediately.”
Magaña-Aguado said she didn’t allow herself to dream growing up, for fear of disappointment. It wasn’t until she came to UVU that she began to see that she was capable of becoming more than she had ever imagined.
“When I first came to the university, I didn’t yet know what it was like to dream, but UVU showed me how,” she said. “One day, you realize that you are the dream. Like right now, in this moment, you are the dream.”
Commencement speaker Mary C. Daly, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, was also a first-generation college student. Daly dropped out of high school at the age of 15 to work and support her family before eventually earning her GED. Although she initially tried to hide this part of her life from her colleagues at the bank, she ultimately realized that all of her experiences, the good and the bad, made her who she is today.
“Pretending, as it turns out, is exhausting. And it’s also hugely limiting,” Daly said. “I was sitting on a mountain of experience that gave me a unique insight into how the economy functions and how it works. As a kid from Missouri, I witnessed firsthand how people get left behind, fall through the cracks, and the lasting impact this can have on families.”
When she finally shed the persona she had created in order to be the person she thought others wanted her to be, she told the assembled graduates, she began to feel truly free.
“Getting that space to be myself was a truly remarkable gift. I felt newly at ease, and that ease translated to opportunities,” she said. “By being open and me, and all of me, I attracted people with diverse ideas. I connected their experiences with my research, and I found capacity that I never knew I had.”
As the UVU class of 2022 moved their tassels to their respective sides, all of their experiences, the bad and the good, culminated in one final moment. Fireworks popped, green and silver confetti rained down and at least one dream for each graduate had finally come true.
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- Graduates celebrate as confetti rains down at the end of the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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- Graduates acknowledge their friends and families as they enter the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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- Graduates acknowledge their friends and families as they enter the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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- Graduates acknowledge their friends and families as they enter the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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- Graduates acknowledge their friends and families as they enter the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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- Graduates celebrate as confetti rains down at the end of the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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- Utah Valley University Student Body President Karen Magaña-Aguado speaks during the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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- Graduates hold hands during the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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- Graduates move their tassels at the end of the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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- A tassel hangs off the cap of a graduate during the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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- Graduates acknowledge their friends and families as they exit the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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- Graduates celebrate during the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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- Graduates listen during the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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- Mary Daly, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco speaks during the Utah Valley University commencement at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022. Daly was the commencement speaker.
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- Utah Valley University President Astrid Tuminez speaks during the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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- Attendees cheer as graduates enter the 2022 Utah Valley University commencement ceremony at the UCCU Center on Friday, May 6, 2022.
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