Celebrating the world's newest discoverers and innovators

Our mission as one of America’s premier research university is to prepare our students not only to succeed in the world, but to lead it.

On Saturday, I will help confer the degrees of more than 2,300 new VCU graduates, one of my greatest privileges as president. These VCU degrees signify our graduates’ academic success and unrelenting determination. But more than that, their degrees give our graduates the responsibility to change the world and to be catalysts for the human experience.

… they will be unrelenting in making a difference in the lives of their fellow human beings.

Only 7 percent of the world’s population has a college degree. Those who do, then, are asked to be leaders and thoughtful advocates for humanity. So these graduates we will honor together on Saturday will be more than just our university’s newest alumni. They will be our world’s newest discoverers and innovators. Prepared with their educational experience at VCU, they will be unrelenting in making a difference in the lives of their fellow human beings.

I could not be more proud of them, or more excited about the possibilities that they bring in their own lives and for all of us. Please join me in congratulating the more than 2,300 newest graduates of VCU.