UA grads hear CEOs, statesmen
Commencement 2024 speakers stress positivity, grace, joy
FAYETTEVILLE — J.K. Symancyk, president and CEO of PetSmart, promulgated a simple message Saturday during commencement for the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas: KIPA — Keep It Positive Always.
His father created the phrase, which became a family mantra.
It’s “powerful,” because doing so “allows you to connect with people in amazing ways,” said Symancyk, who has a bachelor’s degree from UA-Fayetteville and serves on the dean’s advisory board for the Walton College. “How you respond” when confronted with life’s challenges is always a choice, and “if you can be your own source of light, there’s no limit how brightly you can shine.”
Symancyk, who has been in his current role since June 2018, began his career as a seasonal associate in a Walmart distribution center before moving to leadership roles for both Sam’s Club and Walmart, including international roles supporting merchandising, procurement and sourcing, according to PetSmart.
He joined Meijer in 2006 as group vice president, taking on increasingly responsible positions, such as chief operating officer, then was promoted to president in 2012, growing the business in several metrics, before moving to Academy Sports + Outdoors in 2015 as president and CEO, setting it up for an eventual initial public offering.
Graduates were fortunate to hear from Symancyk, “a transformational leader” who advanced quickly at Meijer before helping Academy
find new traction, said Brent Williams, dean of the Walton College. Symancyk and his family have also invested generously in the university’s student success center and established a scholarship in the Walton College.
During his address, Symancyk advised graduates to not assume learning is now finished.
“Don’t lose the drive to learn — intellectual curiosity is an asset — and above all, ask questions, lots of them,” he said.
“Our success is more defined by the questions we ask than the answers we give. There are no shortcuts or substitutions for hard work on the road to success,” and the fuel “you need to sustain that is passion,” so “find what lights a spark for you.”
In addition, the best investment one can make is in others, not himself or herself, so “make it a priority to do so,” he said. Graduates have had so many people invest in them, so Symancyk asked them at the end of his speech to give their supporters “the loudest standing ovation.”
WALMART’S DOUG MCMILLON
Earlier on Saturday, Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart Inc., told his audience Saturday at university commencement — which recognizes graduate students — that they should “be present,” pursue careers that don’t “feel like work,” and assume others have positive intentions until proved otherwise.
“Life goes by fast, (so) enjoy every moment,” and while planning is valuable, “enjoying the present is,” too, he said. “Do today’s job well, drive change, deliver results, and do it the right way.”
“Life is too short to be unhappy” in one’s work — he saw it with his own father, who didn’t truly love dentistry — but McMillon was fortunate in that he found his “happy place immediately” and never had to leave, he said. “If you’re in the right place, most days won’t even feel like work.”
McMillon has worked at Walmart for more than three decades, beginning as a summer associate unloading trailers while a teenager, and he now leads the world’s largest private workforce, said Chancellor Charles Robinson.
Other management roles have included president and chief executive of Sam’s Club from 2005 to 2009, and president and chief executive officer of Walmart International from 2009 to 2014.
Under his leadership. Walmart has invested in wages, benefits and education, and Walmart is also aiming to be a regenerative company, addressing climate change, Robinson added.
Originally from Jonesboro, McMillon — who has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Tulsa in addition to his bachelor’s degree in business administration from UA-Fayetteville — also serves on the boards of directors of Business Roundtable, the Consumer Goods Forum, and the U.S.-China Business Council, as well as the advisory board of the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing, China.
Showing “grace” to others is paramount, and the grace McMillon received when beginning his career may have saved it, he said. He rear-ended his boss at a stoplight on his first day of work — “my career could have ended right then — but he showed me grace and forgiveness.”
“Go do something to help someone else, then see how it feels,” he advised graduates. “It works.”
DAY TO CELEBRATE
During the ceremony, Mark Pryor — former U.S. senator and Arkansas attorney general — received a Doctor of Laws honorary degree.
Pryor has a bachelor’s degree in history from UA-Fayetteville and Juris Doctor from the School of Law, and he spent 18 years in politics as a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, Arkansas attorney general and U.S. senator, Robinson said.
Currently, Pryor is a shareholder for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP in Washington, D.C., and his law practice focuses on government relations.
He’s been dedicated to UA-Fayetteville and to education in Arkansas, Robinson added. That’s a family legacy, as his father, the late David Pryor — former U.S. senator and Arkansas governor — helped establish the eponymous Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History for UA-Fayetteville along with his wife, Barbara.
Graduation day represents “the culmination of your hard work,” but also all the efforts of faculty and staff to provide students meaningful experiences, which will carry graduates into their next chapters of life, Kelly Eichler — who chairs the University of Arkansas System board of trustees — said during commencement. “Our system — and the state — will be better” because of the accomplishments graduates will record in their lives.
“This degree is yours,” she added. “You’ve done it, and no one can take it away from you.”
SUPERHEROES WITH SUPERPOWERS
The experiences of the graduates in this Walton College class “created our own superpowers within us,” and those powers grew stronger — or evolved into new ones — as graduates grew older and wiser, Kennedy Blair told her classmates Saturday. “Superheroes are normal people like us who use their gifts to better the world around them.”
“Your own powers inside you make you the superhero you are, (and) we are now ready to show the rest of the world what we can do” to improve it, added Blair, who majored in accounting, minored in business analytics, and won the Sam. M. Walton leadership award. “What will you be known for?”
This 97th commencement for the business school is a “milestone in the lives” of graduates, but it’s just the beginning, as myriad opportunities await them at a diverse slate of companies, from Arkansas stalwarts like Walmart, J.B. Hunt, Tyson and Stephens Inc., to General Mills, Nestle, and Lockheed Martin, Williams said. The college attracted students from both near — locals like Blair, a Fayetteville native — and far (33 states and 34 countries represented).
Commencement “doesn’t feel real,” and “I’ll miss being with my friends all the time,” but Stella Myers was “excited to see everyone from all the different majors” in her college at the ceremony, said the marketing major. “You don’t always see (one another) much if you’re not in the same” major.
Jordan Clark had “mixed emotions” Saturday, said the supply chain management and finance major. She’s thrilled to be done with “homework” but also anxious about “what the future holds.”
She is grateful her college “prepared us really well, connecting us with companies and getting us good experiences,” she said. “It all went by faster than I thought.”
OTHER GRADUATIONS
The weekend’s festivities began Friday at Bud Walton Arena with commencement for the William J. Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, featuring speaker Michelle Kamanga, senior graduate with Highest Distinction, according to the university.
Also Friday was the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food & Life Sciences commencement held in Barnhill Arena, featuring speaker Jennifer James, part owner of H&J Land Co.
Barnhill Arena hosted the College of Engineering commencement Saturday, followed by the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design and, finally, the College of Education and Health Professions inside Bud Walton Arena.
Jim McClelland, former CEO of McClelland Consulting Engineers and a 1967 graduate of UA-Fayetteville, spoke at the engineering commencement.
Cathleen McGuigan, editor-in-chief of Architectural Record from 2011-2022, did the honors for the Jones School.
Fred Bonner II, professor and endowed chair in Educational Leadership and Counseling and executive director and chief scientist of the MACH-III Center at Prairie View A&M University, handled the day’s final commencement ceremony.
Under McGuigan’s stewardship, Architectural Record won several editorial awards, including the 2012 Grand Neal Award, the top honor for business-to-business publications, according to the university. McGuigan started her journalism career at Newsweek, where she rose to become the architecture critic and the arts editor. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian and Rolling Stone, among others.
UA-Fayetteville is graduating more than 6,400 students this academic year, roughly 4,800 of them this spring, Robinson said.
The UA-Fayetteville School of Law will conduct commencement next Saturday at Fayetteville Town Center, where John Dan Kemp — chief justice of the Supreme Court of Arkansas — will be the featured speaker for the 2 p.m. ceremony.