President Carter Autumn 2024 Commencement Remarks

Members of the Class of 2024,

Family members, friends, professors, staff, mentors who have helped our graduates along the way…

Congratulations!

Graduation is a team sport, as are so many of life’s great achievements. This moment belongs to all of you. Let’s celebrate that with a round of applause.

Thank you. And thank you for allowing me to be part of this special day.

We are fortunate to be joined by so many individuals who are living examples of how you can build on your college experience to lead a life of service and purpose.

I want to thank Stephanie Hightower for her outstanding remarks and her willingness to invest in the next generation of leaders.

Stephanie, your words and actions are an example to us all. Thank you.

I also want to express my gratitude to our Distinguished Service Award recipients for all they’ve done for our university, the State of Ohio and our community.

Few if any of us could follow Stephanie Hightower around the track.

But we CAN follow the example that she, our award recipients, and so many others have set to serve a purpose greater than ourselves.

Each and every one of us can live a life of service. That may take the form of public service, or philanthropy, or community leadership or military service. It may mean raising a family or doing the everyday things that make our community a better place.

The point is, we all have an opportunity and a calling to create good.

With the Ohio State degree you are earning today, I know you will answer that call, and make the world a better place.

The journey will not always be easy. 

Perhaps it is appropriate that our keynote speaker today was a champion hurdler. Life will not always go as you planned. There will be difficult and unexpected challenges. Sometimes, you will trip.

You’ve already seen this up close and personal. Many of you graduated high school and started college at a time when our world was facing an unprecedented crisis. You may have had to miss or modify some of the rites of passage traditionally associated with this period of your life.

More than once, you had to change direction on a moment’s notice.

And I know that beyond the challenges that made it into the headlines, most of you have been dealt your own private challenges.

You have responded as Buckeyes do.

You’ve worked hard, you’ve stayed the course, you’ve treated others with the grace and compassion they deserve, and you’ve made it here, to this day, your graduation.

And what an achievement this is.

The choice you have made to invest in yourself with a college education is one of the wisest decisions you will ever make.

This degree is something no one can ever take away. The relationships you have formed and memories you have made as a Buckeye will last a lifetime.

The things you’ve learned – both the facts you’ve memorized in the classroom and the skills you’ve built outside our buildings – will serve you for the rest of your lives.

I have seen it time and time again throughout my own journey. There is no more transformative force in a person’s life than education.

There are more than 3,500 of you, each with a unique story about how you got here.

I wish I could tell all 3,500 stories. But I know you are eager to celebrate the day. So I will share just a few.

Colin Mullan, a professional racecar driver since age 16, came to Ohio State to become a mechanical engineer so he could learn to race even faster.

Colin joined the Formula Buckeyes SAE team and as president, led the Bucks to our best finish in the team’s 36-year history.

He did two internships at Lucid Motors and now, with his mechanical engineering degree in hand, will join the company full-time as a vehicle development engineer.

Jalil Jackson, dual enrolled at our Newark and Columbus campuses, worked multiple jobs as he pursued his education. He served as an academic peer coach in Newark, making time in his busy schedule to be a mentor and resource to other underrepresented students.

Jalil has made an enormous difference in the lives of other students, both in and out of the classroom, and today is earning his degree in business management.

We have Julia Rizzo, earning her degree in public management, leadership and policy, who served as a fellow in our Center for Ethics and Human Values.

As a Fellow, Julia was an ambassador for civil discourse and respectful engagement on our campus – exactly the kind of principled, thoughtful leaders Ohio State is producing for the next generation.

And there’s Leon Cato, whose path here today has been anything but traditional.

After graduating from high school in Westerville in 1987, Leon enlisted in the Navy and served as a Boatswain’s Mate Crewman. In other words, he was part of the backbone of the Navy.

Leon came to Ohio State in 2002 because he’d always dreamed of becoming a Buckeye.

Life’s challenges intervened, as they so often do, and Leon stepped away from school for a few decades to privately deal with loss and grief that so many of us know all too well.

But he never forgot that dream of earning an Ohio State degree.

Last year, Leon came back to finish what he started.

And even though life again intervened five short weeks ago with a serious health challenge, nothing – nothing – was going to get in the way of Leon’s goal of becoming a Buckeye graduate and serving as a role model to his family, which now includes five children.

Today, with his family here, Leon, proud Navy alum with lifelong Buckeye dreams, will earn a bachelor’s degree in community leadership from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, with a goal of continuing on to a master’s program and making a difference in our community in the area of agriculture – on top of the service he has already given to our country.

Stories like these are exactly what our land-grant public university is all about.

They are exactly what we’re talking about when we cite Ohio State’s motto of “Education for Citizenship.”

These students are exactly the reason our university exists… The reason we come to work every day.

And I know each and every one of you has an equally meaningful story – filled with hopes and dreams, ups and downs, and your own special memories of what it means to be a Buckeye.

You may be graduating today, but remember that you are a part of the Buckeye family forever.

On behalf of the entire leadership team of Ohio State University, I am so proud of you, and so excited for all that you will accomplish in the years ahead. We will be cheering you on every step of the way.

Now, go change the world.