Baccalaureate Ceremony

May 17, 2024
President Robert W. Iuliano
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

As Delivered.

Members of the Class of 2024, families, friends, and colleagues, it is my pleasure to welcome you to our Baccalaureate Ceremony. Today is an opportunity for you to pause and reflect, to catch your breath, and most of all, to savor this remarkable milestone in your life.

You have worked extremely hard to get to where you’re at today. I’d invite you to take it all in. The music. The traditions. The pomp and circumstance. It’s fun. It’s sentimental. And you have earned every bit of it.

I hope you feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment in all that you’ve done over these past four years, particularly against a backdrop of having navigated a moment in time unlike few classes before you.

Class of ’24, graduation is upon us. You will soon walk out of Penn Hall and into your future, bookending the walk you took into Penn Hall your first year. And what a future it promises to be.

Congratulations!

I’ve been a runner throughout most of my adult life. It’s a way for me to carve out some time for quiet and reflection.

Ask any avid runner and they can tell you the places they love to run. For me, there is no more inspiring place than here in Gettysburg, especially on those mornings when the mist hangs low over the monuments and the sunrise shimmers off the landscape in an explosion of orange.

There’s something about running in this setting—one defined by its history, where the land itself calls to us—that brings clarity and perspective to the present.

Now, I shouldn’t overromanticize this. I’m an early morning runner—perhaps starting when many of you on, say, a Saturday morning, may just be heading to bed. And, as I suspect is true for many of you, there are mornings where just getting started is the challenge.

Well, maybe not just getting started, but being true to our ambitions and the goals we set for ourselves.

There is a quote often attributed to Mark Twain, which observed, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into smaller manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”

It’s traveling from the warmth of bed to the cold air of the early-dawn hour.

It’s tying those Asics running shoes when padding around the house in thick socks sounds more appealing.

It’s taking that first stride on the unforgiving pavement when you’d much rather be strolling into Waldo’s for a hot cocoa or coffee.

All said, it’s never easy to keep the commitments we make to ourselves.

And yet when we’re confronted by these whispers of reluctance and self-doubt, that’s our opening to discover the true measure of our resolve. To discipline our minds by doing something hard, something that propels us forward.

Of course, this could be any number of personal commitments you’ve made in your journey for self-improvement.

It could be carving out time for that 100-page reading assignment.

Or, taking out the ear buds to savor 10 minutes of mindfulness.

Or, putting down the phone to really talk with a friend sitting with you.

Or, picking up the phone to call your parents.

As a father of two, we’ll always settle for a text, but a phone call is golden! Take note of your parents nodding their heads right now. Remember that!

Here’s the takeaway: Personal growth is not measured by our plans. It is found in the small, imperfect steps we take each day to become the person we aspire to be.

It’s about getting up and showing up, even when every fiber of our being wants to stay put and stay comfortable.

It’s about embracing inevitable discomfort with the belief that imperfection in the small things will ultimately lead to progress on the things that truly matter.

I’ve learned time and again throughout my life that I will stumble. Scrape a knee. Twist an ankle. Or maybe, as happened to me this morning, take the running shoes off instead of pushing through.

We all stumble from time to time.

But what truly matters is our willingness to rise up, to lace up, and get out on the road after that stumble. To keep running toward the horizon.

Because when you’re done—when the sacredness of the land you’ve covered has renewed your soul and you’re standing at the destination you’ve long been running toward, I promise you’ll marvel at just how far you’ve come.

So today, Class of 2024, I hope you take some time to likewise marvel at how far you’ve come. To look all the way back to your starting line. Your growth has been truly remarkable, and I hope you take great pride in that.

As you move forward in the months and years ahead, I urge you to embrace those small imperfections in your life’s journey—in your relationships, your friendships, your schooling, and your career.

Understand that setbacks teach perseverance. And perseverance builds within you the grit, drive, and resilience to achieve more than you’d ever imagine—if you’re only willing to press onward.

So, run your race with all its perfect imperfections.

In witnessing your class in action over these last four years, I know you will.

Let me close.

I am eagerly looking forward to tomorrow, rain or shine, when we gather in front of Penn Hall.  

You will walk across that stage—something I suspect many of you were not able to do four years ago when you graduated from high school. We will shake hands. And I will hand you your diploma, which is far more than a piece of paper. It is a symbol of how much you’ve grown, how much you’ve accomplished, and all the stumbles you’ve turned into triumphs.

Class of 2024, on behalf of the faculty and staff of the College, congratulations!