CEDAR CITY — Southern Utah University celebrated its largest ever graduating class during commencement exercises Friday morning.

“We are thrilled to recognize 2,408 candidates for graduation, as the largest graduating class,” SUU President Mindy Benson said as she welcomed those gathered inside the America First Event Center. 

In keeping with tradition, the graduating students and faculty started the morning by lining up at the bell tower near the Old Main building on the east side of campus. From there, they marched in procession to the event center as family members, friends and other supporters clapped, cheered and took photos and videos.

According to statistics provided by the university, the 2,911 degrees being awarded this year include 810 master’s degrees, 1,807 bachelor’s degrees, 266 associate’s degrees and 28 certificates.

“Our 124th graduating class includes students from 27 countries, 47 U.S. states and 28 Utah counties,” Benson said, adding that the graduates range in age from 17 to 73, with 27 as the average.

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do,” Benson told the graduates, quoting Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. “If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

During her remarks, Benson also highlighted a few key moments in the institution’s history.

“This year has also been historic as SUU celebrated the 125th anniversary and honored our heritage and the foundation upon which we are built,” she said. 

Benson talked about the pioneer settlers’ tireless efforts to construct the first school building in 1897-98, including cutting trees and hauling lumber down from the canyons.

“With the sacrifice of the entire community and against all odds, the building we know as Old Main was completed just in time to preserve our school,” she said. “Why would this collection of hardy farmers, ranchers and miners, women and children be willing to toil, sacrifice and suffer to construct our first building? What would inspire this community to display such extraordinary commitment and dedication?

 “Our founders were driven by a noble purpose, a cause greater than themselves. Their work was fueled by a belief that the lives of future generations would be transformed by the gift of a college education.”

Some of that original lumber from 125 years ago has been incorporated into the design of the newly constructed podium from which Benson was speaking, she noted.

In her second anecdote, Benson spoke of how the university, then known as Branch Agricultural College, struggled for years during the Great Depression. During the early 1940s, it lost a sizable percentage of its students to the World War II draft. However, Utah Congressman Walter K. Granger, who was a former mayor of Cedar City and an alumnus of the college, suggested it be used as a training facility for Army Air Cadets.

“The orchestra teacher, who had lost most of his string section to the draft, became the new director of academics for cadets, and many faculty and administrators transitioned to become instructors in the aircrew training program,” Benson noted. “Over the next 16 months, 3,000 cadets were trained in Cedar City by adapting to meet this unforeseen opportunity. The college not only survived but thrived.”

Benson then encouraged the graduates to likewise be ready for unexpected challenges.

“Graduates, as you prepare for the next chapter in your lives, many of you have devised carefully crafted plans for your life. You may know exactly where you’re going, what you’ll be doing, and perhaps you’ll be spending your life. But your plans at 23 will be very different than at 33 or 43. And some of your best-laid plans will evolve as new opportunities or challenges emerge.”

Benson noted how she had experienced a similar shift in her life goals, when, just a year and a half after graduating from SUU and leaving Cedar City, her mentor called to offer her a job in student activities.

“This opportunity was nowhere in my life plan, but I accepted the position and I soon discovered my greatest purpose in life was working with college students,” she said.

Benson’s third and final story related how the Old Main building caught fire in December 1948. Many students and staff rushed inside the burning building to save as many library books as they could before the floors and ceilings collapsed.

“The devastating fire occurred 50 years almost to the month after the building was first dedicated,” Benson said, noting that many people, especially older folks who’d helped construct the old building, wept at the sight of the flames.

But even in mourning, Benson said the members of the campus and community showed their resilience in the fire’s aftermath, even holding regularly scheduled classes the very next day.

“One of the lessons I hope you all will take from this story is the importance of showing up just as those students courageously did on the morning of the fire,” Benson added.

As she concluded her remarks, Benson said, “I hope you will take these three stories from our university’s history with you as a gift, and that you will be inspired to live your purpose, embrace unanticipated opportunities and show up. As you now fly from the nest of SUU, we can’t wait to see how high you soar. After all, you are Thunderbirds.”

Benson introduced the three student speakers — Aspen English, Kalli Ostermiller and Sarah Penner.

English, who is originally from Monticello, is graduating with a bachelor’s degree, majoring in both English and communication. During her remarks, English spoke of a project she’d done where she had interviewed several of her fellow students, after which she sat down with them for a second interview one year later.

“I asked them each the same 10 questions for the second time, we paused to listen to their answers from the year before,” she said. “They got to hear from their past selves.”

There was one thing that the interview subjects had in common, English noted.

“They had all changed a lot,” she said. “Majors, career paths, friends, religious beliefs … In just one year, each person I talked to had grown into a different, more authentic version of themselves.” 

Added English:

One year from now, we will be all over the world, flying planes, saving lives, writing books, leading businesses. And it will be in part because of the experiences that SUU has given us. So my fellow graduates, instead of saying congratulations just to you, allow me to also congratulate the versions of yourselves you were one year ago, two years ago, three years ago, four years ago … we couldn’t have done it without them.

Ostermiller, a political science major from Tremonton, then spoke of facing life’s challenges with honesty and vulnerability.

“Life is so much better when you stop trying to be what other people want,” she said. “Instead, start living true to who you already are.”

Added Ostermiller: “Let me be perfectly clear, who you are is enough. There is no need to conform … any person who wants you to change just does not understand the beauty of your unique identity.”  

“Fellow graduates, we are given the opportunity and responsibility to create a better world for future generations,” she added. “Let us create a world that allows everyone to express themselves. A world that views authentic individuals as exemplars, not threats, and a world that teaches us that our work is immeasurable and undeniable.”

The third speaker was Penner, a psychology major originally from Layton. She spoke on the theme of resilience, recounting how she had broken her hip and femur while skiing in the Austrian Alps last year.

“Even now, over a year later after committing to my full recovery, moving back to the small town I call home and taking two more semesters full of 17 credits each, things aren’t easy. And as unexpected as it is, I’m grateful for the difficulty.”

Penner said she decided to make resilience the topic of her final capstone paper, even though the term itself is difficult to define. 

“I also believe that all scientific terms and research aside, resilience is something that can be inherently recognized,” she said. “I see it in your faces. The resilience in my spirit recognizes the resilience in yours. And it gives me hope for the future. 

“Whatever it is that your future holds, I am confident that you, the Class of 2023, will do it with courage and grace,” she added. “Congratulations. I can’t wait to see what we do next.”

Benson introduced commencement speaker Joan Woodbury, a Cedar City native who graduated in 1947 from what was then Branch Agricultural College. Woodbury’s extensive background includes teaching dance and choreography for nearly 50 years and co-founding the internationally renowned Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company.

“Surround and share yourself with people who are willing to listen,” the 95-year-old Woodbury told the graduates, adding: 

And most importantly, be accepting of others who are proud to be who they are. You’ll find that despite perceived differences, the world is full of people who have incredible things to offer in this life, and use them as long as you’re humble, gracious, daring, willing to listen and accepting of others, you will be rewarded, much more than you can possibly imagine.

On Thursday evening, the night before the commencement ceremony, Woodbury had been presented with an honorary doctorate degree in fine arts. She was one of two such honorees this year, with the other being Jeffrey R. Holland, who was awarded an honorary doctorate in public service. Holland was unable to attend the commencement ceremony due to health reasons.

Following Woodbury’s remarks, SUU Provost Jon Anderson proclaimed the degree recipients as having been officially graduated. The actual awarding of diplomas was scheduled to occur later throughout the day, during the various college commencement ceremonies around campus.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, SUU Alumni President Caytee Wankier officially welcomed the graduates to the ever-growing ranks of Thunderbird alumni, who now number approximately 75,000 worldwide. 

“Once a T-Bird, always a T-Bird,” she reminded the graduates.

Also during the program, mechanical engineering major Drew Hatch from Mesa, Arizona, was recognized as the Class of 2023 valedictorian.

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