{"id":45032,"date":"2025-01-21T15:58:44","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T15:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/commencement\/?page_id=45032"},"modified":"2025-01-21T16:56:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T16:56:48","slug":"message-from-the-president-and-conferral-of-degrees","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/commencement\/class-of-2020\/message-from-the-president-and-conferral-of-degrees\/","title":{"rendered":"Message from the President and Conferral of Degrees"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":0,"parent":44832,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-45032","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"lead_in":"Class of 2020","display_title":" Message from the President and Conferral of Degrees","subtitle":"","call_to_action":"","hero_image_placement":"no_image","hero_media":"images","hero_pattern_option":"","hero_video":"","hero_image_landing":"","hero_image_landing_two":"","hero_image_landing_three":"","content_modules":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"","title":"","content":"[embed]https:\/\/youtu.be\/Blb0kV7vxkE[\/embed]\r\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #00205b;\">Class of 2020, you are ready for your next journey to begin.<\/span><\/h3>\r\nThis may not be the commencement you hoped for, but you are as well prepared for life\u2019s challenges as any class we have ever graduated.\r\n\r\nYou have learned the values of the most important gifts we can provide\u2014critical thinking, perseverance, the value of working with others, serving the community, and your personal commitment to Meliora.\r\n\r\nYou will succeed because of your talents, your education, your work ethic. You have shown resilience in an uncertain and deeply unsettling time; you have demonstrated sacrifice during a crisis. In the face of so many obstacles, you have triumphed. You are the leaders in whom we are all investing our future.\r\n<blockquote>Graduates, have confidence in your abilities and take pride in your accomplishments, knowing that the faculty and all of us who had a role in nurturing your personal and intellectual development are immensely proud of you.<\/blockquote>\r\nTo quote Michelle Obama, \u201cYou may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world\u2019s problems at once, but don\u2019t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own.\u201d\r\n\r\nGraduates, have confidence in your abilities and take pride in your accomplishments, knowing that the faculty and all of us who had a role in nurturing your personal and intellectual development are immensely proud of you.\r\n\r\nIn the course of life\u2019s events and in the face of more challenges ahead, I know you will continue to do all that you can to make the world ever better.\r\n\r\nAnd now it is my honor to confer your degrees.\r\n\r\nThe University of Rochester, upon the recommendation of its faculty and approval of its Board of Trustees, admits each of you to the degree for which you have been recommended, and confers upon you all of the rights, privileges, and responsibility of that degree.\r\n\r\nI offer my personal congratulations for your accomplishments, and I welcome you to the fellowship of scholars.\r\n\r\nCongratulations, Class of 2020!\r\n\r\nPresident Sarah C. Mangelsdorf","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Message from the President and Conferral of Degrees - Commencement Weekend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/commencement\/class-of-2020\/message-from-the-president-and-conferral-of-degrees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Message from the President and Conferral of Degrees - Commencement Weekend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/commencement\/class-of-2020\/message-from-the-president-and-conferral-of-degrees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commencement Weekend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-21T16:56:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/URochester-Link-Preview-Commencement.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/commencement\\\/class-of-2020\\\/message-from-the-president-and-conferral-of-degrees\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/commencement\\\/class-of-2020\\\/message-from-the-president-and-conferral-of-degrees\\\/\",\"name\":\"Message from the President and Conferral of Degrees - 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