URI bids adieu to the class of 2024 with Viola Davis speech
KINGSTON — The University of Rhode Island said goodbye to the class of 2024 last weekend at the Ryan Center with a weekend full of memorable moments, including a profound keynote address by Viola Davis.
“I stand here and in each of you I see the sacred, an ember that when agitated, woken up, becomes a glorious, wild flame,” said Davis, a Rhode Island native who graduated from Central Falls High School and has become one of the most successful actresses of the modern era. “That flame is your story. It’s your passion. It’s your lifeforce. Allow me to wake up your flame.”
Davis is one of only 19 people to achieve EGOT status, a designation given to those who have won all four major American performing arts awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.
Her inspiring words came during the College of Arts and Sciences commencement held Saturday morning.
Central to Davis’s speech was “The call is to love it. Love. Love as a verb,” stressing that ambition and achievement are hollow without love driving them.
She drew on Scott Peck’s definition of love as “the will to extend oneself for the purpose of nurturing one’s own, or another’s spiritual growth,” encouraging graduates to foster personal and collective growth.
Davis also highlighted the hero’s journey, a transformative path of self-discovery and healing. “The journey of someone that hears a voice deep within them calling them to a radical, uncomfortable, fulfilling, gut-wrenching, inner transformation,” she described. She urged graduates to face their fears and imperfections, using their experiences to heal themselves and others.
“You can either leave something for people or you can leave something in people. When you leave it in, you are planting embers, eternal flames, and that is its own boss move,” Davis concluded.
In addition to Davis, Charles M. Royce and Deborah Goodrich Royce were honored with honorary Doctors of Humane Letters for their significant contributions to literature, investment, and preservation work in Rhode Island.
This year, there were eight student speakers representing the schools and colleges.
The student speaker for the College of Arts and Sciences, Jacob Iacobucci, from West Greenwich, delivered a heartfelt address at the ceremony, headlined “Making History: How the Class of 2024 Overcame a Worldwide Shutdown and Beyond.”
He described the class of 2024 as a group marked by creativity, passion, and vision.
Reflecting on their unconventional college experience, Iacobucci recalled the disrupted 2020-2021 academic year, which began virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My first year was hardly typical. It felt like another world, another place in time,” he said.
As a freshman commuter, Iacobucci, described his initial year as lonely and challenging but noted how many students found their passions during this period of isolation.
He shared his personal journey of finding his passion for radio.
“Personally, I love to talk and talk. Once I start, I just can’t stop,” he shared, recounting his journey to URI’S radio station, WRIU 90.3 FM. “The first time I went on air, I knew it was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.”
He proudly announced his current role as the general manager of WRIU and his aspirations in the broadcasting industry.
Iacobucci pursued a degree in film media and English, highlighting the strong cinematic minds he encountered at URI.
“I also came to your right to become a filmmaker and that’s a career path for which I have been well prepared,” he continued, “Even though I’ve loved my major, it wasn’t always easy. URI helped me see the opportunities in the radio industry and the ever-expanding opportunities online.”
He credited URI’S supportive environment and the experiences provided by WRIU. “That radio station hidden on the third floor of the Memorial Union gave me leadership opportunities, life experience, and gateways to internships. That’s the magic of this campus,” Iacobucci stated.
“Whether it’s a worldwide pandemic, term papers, or senioritis, nothing has been able to stop the class of 2024. We may bend, we may complain, but we never break. Today we stand tall as champions,” he concluded.
The College of Arts and Sciences ceremony was one of eight held over three days of commencement ceremonies from last Friday through last Sunday.
Over the weekend, URI awarded a total of 4,762 degrees to 4,169 graduates, including 3,980 undergraduate and 782 graduate degrees. Some earned multiple degrees.
URI also honored 47 military veterans, including 33 undergraduates and 14 graduate students. The class of 2024 also included 14 sets of twins and one unique mother-son pair.
The ceremonies featured graduates from across 43 states and 32 countries, with students ranging in age from 19 to 68.
Other notable ceremonies included the College of Business, College of Pharmacy, College of Nursing, College of Engineering, College of Health Sciences, Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Education, and the College of the Environment and Life Sciences.
Victoria Fulfer of Narragansett, the student speaker for the Graduate School of Oceanography, said class members’ plans likely look very different than when they started.
“Many of us completed our studies in the middle of a pandemic,” Fulfer said. “We worked and studied through insurrections and impeachment trials and heated presidential elections. We graduate into a completely new world full of challenges at every turn. But amid the strife and battles, we also saw stories of hope and innovation.”
East Lyme, Connecticut native Sarah Mayer, the College of Engineering’s student speaker, listed the multiple challenges of starting URI during a pandemic but said, “Despite these challenges, the class of 2024 persevered, with the determination to make the most out of our university experience.”
She said she was forced to make a decision, “to stay in my dorm room, isolated, or step out of my
opportunni- room and seek ties for involvement and personal growth. Had I not done so, I would not have gone to California and Texas to experience the world’s largest engineering conference for female engineers. I would not have mentored seven firstyear engineering students. I would not have become a writing consultant in the undergraduate writing center, proving that a STEM major can enjoy writing.”
Melany Feliz Garcia of Providence addressed her fellow graduates in the College of Nursing.
“As we embark on this next chapter of our journey, let us do so with courage, determination, and an unwavering commitment to excellence,” she said. “Above all, let us never lose sight of the incredible privilege it is to be a nurse, to have the opportunity to touch lives, heal wounds, and make a difference in the world.”
The Ryan Center buzzed with up to 40,000 attendees converging on campus to celebrate the achievements of students.
In his closing remarks, URI President Marc Parlange told the class of 2024 to “never forget the profound importance of hope and possibility.”
“We often use hope as a platitude, but I encourage you to cultivate it and adopt it as a lens for your life,” he said. “Hope and the belief in possibility have given you the resilience to pursue your goals and enable us to confront uncertainty with confidence. It is a guiding light during our darkest times and it binds us together, allowing us to collectively envision a better world and build thriving communities. Hope is not just the expectation of better things, but the guidance and inspiration toward achieving them.”