As the years pass, graduation day will certainly become more and more hazy. But for right now, it will be remembered by new graduates as the day they got their tickets to ‘ship out’ and passage to all points of the compass and adventures unknown.
Commencement at Colorado State University-Pueblo took place under an overcast. Perhaps not the ideal weather after years of sometimes grueling effort for the newly minted graduates, but still a day well worth the wait. It was also a day long in coming for the Pueblo school’s new president.
Armando Valdez, who took the reins of the university following the departure of Dr. Timothy Mottet at the end of last year, was equally excited, not only for the school’s nearly 600 graduates, but for himself and his baptism presiding over his first graduating class.
“I’m extremely excited,” Valdez said. “These students have worked hard. Now they go on to transform their futures across so many diverse areas,” said the San Luis Valley native. Their graduation, he said, not only prepares them for what awaits but bodes well for the city of Pueblo where many of them will become future leaders in business and industry.
“The vast majority of them,” said Valdez, “have connections to Pueblo…they will lead, serve” and play vital roles in their city’s future. Some of them, Valdez predicted, may go well beyond Pueblo also take what they learn to serve the nation.
The study of cyber security has become a new degree granting program at the school, a nod to a 21st century necessity in a world of high tech and invisible threats. CSU-Pueblo’s Class of ’24 will provide a smattering of these new graduates or ‘CyberWolves,’ as Valdez calls them. ‘CyberWolf’ is the marriage of the school’s mascot, the Thunderwolf, with the new discipline.
Since 1933, the Pueblo school, in its various incarnations—Pueblo Junior College, Southern Colorado State College, University of Southern Colorado and now, Colorado State University-Pueblo—has produced more than 45,000 graduates. CSU-Pueblo is also designated as a Hispanic Serving Institute, meaning that its enrollment is 25 percent or greater Latino.
Commencement at Alamosa’s Adams State University also took place on Saturday with more than 700 students receiving various degrees, from Associates to Doctorates. Adams State, which serves the vast San Luis Valley, is also designated an HSI school. A total of 22 percent of this year’s graduates are identified as Hispanic.
The San Luis Valley university’s graduating class also reflects a growing trend at colleges and universities across the country in that women students now outnumber men.
Information from Adams State shows that 67 percent of its graduates are women. Women also outnumber men in all categories of earned degrees from Associates to Doctorate. Women in this graduating class, according to school records, earned more than 75 percent of all Masters Degrees.
“There is benefit and burden in achieving any goal.
Both are necessary to thrive,” Dr. Gillian McKnight-Tutein, told the new ASU graduates. McKnight-Tutein is the Colorado Department of Higher Educational Equity Officer.
“Breaking barriers means making decisions with good information, surrounding yourself with the right people, and creating a legacy with your own vibe.”
The culmination of years of hard work where new ways of thinking, while not entirely perfected, along with a college degree, have earned these new graduates a ticket to the future, said CSU-Pueblo’s Valdez. “They don’t even realize the impact they will make.” The adventure awaits.
