2024 Commencement Message from Chancellor Mildred García

Dear Class of 2024:

Please accept my warmest and most heartfelt congratulations on achieving a truly momentous goal in your life. Just a few short years ago, you set your sights on earning a degree. Now, that goal is a reality. I hope you feel a well-earned sense of pride.

Even as numerous forces upended our world, you held firmly onto your dreams and persisted in your studies through challenges none of us could have foreseen or imagined. By necessity, you have developed and honed attributes that will benefit you for a lifetime. Your resilience and adaptability will become career strengths. Your creativity and resourcefulness will define you. Your courage and determination are, in my eyes, already legendary.

Moving forward, you will face new opportunities with the potential for great success. I am sure that you will excel because you have the knowledge, skills and connections gained through your California State University education.

Your personal and educational transformation was aided by faculty, who trained you to look at the world with a critical eye and an open mind. Their efforts were supported by the work of your counselors, advisors, librarians, tutors and coaches who created an encouraging environment for you to succeed. All the while, your family, friends, colleagues and loved ones kept you motivated and saw you through your academic journey.

Your accomplishment today fills all of them – all of us – with pride.

You are now part of a network of over four million CSU alumni who are powering the social and economic prosperity of our state – and far beyond. You join fellow alumni who are solving our greatest challenges, educating the next generation, fighting for equality, and creating new opportunities for economic prosperity.

I encourage you to stay connected to the CSU. Use these connections – both to your university and to other CSU alumni – to expand your opportunities and make a meaningful impact on your community and the world. I also encourage you to support the generations who endeavor to follow in your footsteps.

The word we use to commemorate an earned university degree is “commencement.” This is, of course, deliberate. Today is not an end, but rather a beginning. And as you continue on your life’s journey, may your hard work and sacrifices pay dividends far beyond today’s celebration, both in your life and in the lives of those around you.

Congratulations, California State University Class of 2024! I look forward to all that you will accomplish.

Felicidades!

Warmly,

Mildred García, Ed.D.
California State University Chancellor