'Graduates, this is your day'

The ceremony marked one of the largest summer graduating classes in UC history and comes on the heels of a record spring commencement.

“Graduates, this is your day,” President Neville Pinto told the graduates in front of enthusiastic family and friends.

“Earning a degree is no small thing. It reflects not only academic excellence but resilience, determination and countless hours of hard work,” Pinto said.

Pinto recognized the many military veterans among the class of 2025. And he singled out biology doctoral student Ruma Chatterji, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Graduate Student Excellence.

This year’s summer commencement nearly tops the record set in 2022 for both graduates and degrees and comes on the heels of UC’s record spring commencement.

UC conferred 2,208 degrees upon 2,203 graduates, according to preliminary numbers from UC’s Office of Institutional Research. Some grads earned multiple degrees.

UC awarded 259 associate degrees, 751 bachelor’s degrees, 1,104 master’s degrees and 184 doctoral degrees. About 44% of degrees awarded are in science, technology, engineering math or medicine.

Summer graduates hail from countries on six continents as far away as New Zealand and 48 states, including Hawaii and Alaska.

More than 5% of graduates are military veterans or dependents of veterans. The youngest grad, earning an associate degree, is 18. The oldest grad, earning a bachelor’s, is 70. 

Carl H. Lindner College of Business graduate Hannah Schneider, a double major, delivered a student address that lauded her classmates for their accomplishments and credited the university for showing students the way.

“We learned, adapted, stumbled and grew into who we are today: Bearcats ready for the world,” Schneider said.

Former UC President Nancy Zimpher attended the ceremony.

UC Associate Professor Tamika Odum served as commencement marshal. College-Conservatory of Music student Erin Alcorn sang the national anthem in front of an honor guard led by the University of Cincinnati Pershing Rifles.

Alcorn led students in singing the Alma Mater before grads tossed their mortar boards in the air as confetti fell from the rafters.

The Board of Trustees awarded an honorary doctorate to UC alumna, educator, businesswoman and philanthropist Margaret “Peg” Valentine.

Upon earning two bachelor’s degrees from UC, followed by a master’s degree from Miami University, Valentine embarked on a distinguished teaching career at Princeton City Schools, ultimately serving as head of the Foreign Language Department.

UC College of Arts and Sciences doctoral graduate Souvik Chakraborty was hooded by his dissertation adviser, biology Professor Joshua Benoit, in front of his parents who traveled from Darjeeling, India, for the ceremony.

In Benoit’s lab, Chakraborty studied the ability of mosquitoes' eggs to withstand heat stress and drought.

“Mosquitoes are the deadliest animal in the world,” he said. “People are No. 2.”

Chakraborty discovered that mosquito eggs in urban areas are more drought tolerant, which means the biting insects can increase their numbers more quickly when the rains return. This has staggering implications for cities that deal with wet and dry seasons and face epidemics of malaria and dengue, he said.

“Mosquitoes can find people much easier in densely populated areas,” he said.

As a doctoral student, Chakraborty taught undergraduate classes from freshman biology to microbiology. Giving regular presentations in Benoit’s lab gave him the confidence to present at international conferences as far away as Japan.

“At UC, there was a culture of valuing progress over perfection,” he said. “A kind word can be as powerful as a well-designed experiment. It creates safety, nurtures creativity and, above all, allows growth.”

This summer, he will return to India to work as a postdoctoral researcher and reunite with his wife, who is studying geotechnical engineering. But Chakraborty said he will miss Cincinnati, with its four seasons, and UC’s campus, which he described as beautiful.

“I am forever grateful to my adviser and lab mates, who chose kindness over criticism and encouragement over competition,” he said.

“They didn’t just help me become a better scientist; they helped me become a more confident, compassionate and resilient person. Wherever my journey takes me next, I know that carrying forward the lesson of appreciation, and passing it on to others, will be the true measure of my growth over these past six years.”

Featured image at top: UC graduates celebrate commencement on the floor of Fifth Third Arena. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand