Bloomfield College of Montclair State University welcomed more than 2,000 students, faculty, staff, family and friends onto its campus grounds for the College’s 151st Commencement exercises on Saturday, May 18. The Class of 2024 made its way along Liberty Street for the procession, accompanied by the Malcolm X Shabazz High School Platinum Funk Squad Drumline.
While the majority of the 265 eligible graduates filed into the cover of an expansive tent on the College Quadrangle, the crowd cheered and some shed tears as many were among those whose high school graduations were canceled four years ago by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Over these last several years, we have navigated a roller coaster of events and persevered during a time of great difficulty. BUT, guess what? You made it!” Chancellor Marcheta P. Evans, who is departing later in June for the presidency at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota, exclaimed to the graduates. “The road to today has not been without bumps and significant hurdles along the way that you had to navigate to accomplish your dreams of becoming a college graduate, or earning your next level degree – but in spite of it all, again I say, you did it. How proud you must feel!”
Montclair State University President Jonathan Koppell told the graduates “Yes, you had an image in your mind of walking across that stage…what made it happen was the perseverance to get through the obstacles, the challenges, and you, of course, faced challenges that no other group before you faced. And so you didn’t expect a pandemic. You didn’t expect to have your high school graduation on Zoom or for that matter the first year of college on Zoom, so I actually feel really confident given what you’ve accomplished, that you have the ability to make our communities stronger, healthier, more fair, that you have the ability to improve our country to make it more prosperous, not just for some people, but for everybody, that you have the ability to create a world that is more just, more peaceful, more joyful.”
Members of the Class of 2024 represent much of the State of New Jersey, including 18 of the 21 counties, and seven other states as well as students with citizenship in or originating from 17 countries. It also includes both…
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