‘Bet on the Class of 2024’ (2024)

Four years ago, high school seniors had to settle for drive-by cheers from friends and relatives, online ceremonies watched from their sofas, or diploma pickups in empty auditoriums.

On Monday evening, University of Maryland graduates celebrated their accomplishments in full with caps and cords, photos and fireworks, and the spirit of resilience that characterized their last four years.

“Your generation of students has faced exceptional challenges, and had to miss, delay or significantly alter many milestones and celebrations—including your high school graduation—because of the pandemic,” said UMD President Darryll J. Pines. “We are so proud of how you persevered, and thankful that we can gather together today to honor you. We are all stronger—TerrapinSTRONG—because of you.”

The ceremony at SECU Stadium celebrated nearly 14,000 graduates from August and December 2023 and May 2024: an estimated 9,122 Terps who earned bachelor’s degrees, 3,406 who completed master’s degrees and 1,286 with doctorates. The livestream was zapped by an earlier power outage that also forced the School of Public Health’s ceremony to be rescheduled for Tuesday.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore addressed the graduates and their guests, urging students to “choose tough” in their professional and personal lives. “Choose the thing that doesn’t just take you out of your comfort zone, but keeps you out of your comfort zone,” he said. “Because when you choose tough, that’s when you figure out how to take on whatever life throws at you.”

Moore said that his own experiences with “choosing tough,” especially his time in the U.S. Army, had prepared him for crises like the recent collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. “We have achieved things that people said would take months, in a matter of weeks,” he said.

He earned a standing ovation, but got his biggest cheers when he said he had “married up” with his wife, Dawn, a Terp. “I guess you are all my in-laws,” he joked.

Student speaker Tolulope Ajayi ’24 highlighted the journey of the Class of 2024 over the last four years, recalling the sense of isolation that many felt at the end of their senior year of high school and throughout their freshman year of college, when they often sat alone in their rooms watching major world events happening without being able to connect with one another to talk about them.

As life returned to pre-pandemic patterns, Ajayi said, this class coalesced. “Strangers become friends, study partners and chosen family, bonded by shared goals and shared struggles,” she said. “Our presence here today is living proof that we are not just a product of circ*mstances, but active participants determined to make a difference.”

University System of Maryland Chancellor Jay Perman also spoke to the class’ ability to transcend difficult circ*mstances. “If I had to bet on any class to do great things—important things, impossible things—I’d bet on the class of 2024,” he said. “Because you know what the world looks like when it’s turned upside down, and I suspect that you know better than most how to turn it right again.”