New Graduates Lauded, Encouraged To Keep Moving Forward

Nearly 4,000 new graduates of the University of Virginia made the ceremonial walk down the Lawn on Sunday to receive their degrees on the second day of Final Exercises.

For the University of Virginia’s 2025 Class President James Edwards, the anticipation of Sunday’s walk was a time to reflect from his room on the Lawn.

“I was kind of sitting there like, ‘Wow, I’m going to miss this a lot.’ I started to reflect on the people who have gotten me here,” Edwards said before the exercises. “As a class, I felt like we were able to get through some tragedies and difficult circumstances together, and we have become close.”

For Edwards, a Lawn resident for his fourth year, the walk carries additional meaning.

James Edwards, president of the Class of 2025, stands in the doorway of his Lawn room preparing to lead the class on its procession to graduation. (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)

“When I moved in in August, I felt like I had 50 new friends. It was like being a first-year again where you got like to meet everyone over again. It’s been a good experience with football games, grilling, making food together, hanging out, going to Carter’s Mountain, that kind of stuff,” he said.

Edwards, who plans to return to his home state of Delaware to be a pediatric trauma nurse, recently received the University’s Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for character and service. He said it’s an honor to be in the same class as “so many incredible people.”

“The class of 2025 is doing extraordinary things. We have (champion swimmer and Olympian) Gretchen Walsh; one of my classmates was on the “Lego Masters” show with his grandfather and (Catharine Cossaboom) lives on the Lawn, is a Goldwater scholar and is doing groundbreaking research,” he said. “I feel honored to be able to call myself a part of this class.”

UVA President Jim Ryan told the class that, although they are entering “a world that is uncertain and somewhat volatile,” he believes they will make wise and courageous decisions.

“The grace and strength of your class has held this community together through times of grief and times of celebration,” he said. “There is, after all, much joy to be found in this world, as you have already shown us. Most importantly, you have made this University a better place, and I have no doubt you will do the same for the world you are about to enter.”

For Cedric Rucker, a 1984 graduate of the University who will retire this summer from his role as special advisor to the vice president and chief student affairs officer, being a commencement speaker shows how much the world can change in one lifetime.

Cedric Rucker, special advisor to the vice president and chief student affairs officer, urges graduates to be inclusive and change their communities in positive ways. (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)

Rucker was born in 1950s Richmond, when Virginia law segregated daily life, from schools and hospitals to restaurants and water fountains.

“This ‘Eisenhower’ baby experienced the structural impediments that drew lines not to be crossed, doors not to be entered, fences and ropes that separated, and parts of town where one was not to be found after certain times of day,” he recalled. “This was not just a part of the far-flung history of our nation, but my living reality, in many aspects lasting through my teenage years.”

Growing up in public housing, Rucker said the idea of attending the University of Virginia seemed impossible, but he credited teachers, professors and his grandmother for supporting him on his journey into higher education.

“I now stand in a space that I and members of my family would not have been permitted to occupy,” he said, thanking “generations of social justice champions” who helped open opportunities. “UVA has come far. Let us not go backward. Let us ever advance the benefits of such a magnificent array of students and scholars from across disciplines and professions to call this place home. We owe this to ourselves and to our world.”