Watch video excerpts from Elon’s 123rd Commencement Exercises Under the Oaks and browse photographs from the different graduation ceremonies.
Thousands of undergraduate and graduate students participated in Commencement Exercises at Elon University in May. Browse photographs in this gallery taken by Office of University Communications staff, as well as some submitted via Instagram by our newest alumni.
NBC Nightly News anchor and Elon parent Brian Williams served as keynote speaker at Elon’s 123rd Commencement exercises on May 25. Williams used humor and poignant stories from his work to remind the Class of 2013 about the value of time in a world where their leadership is needed.
In his charge to graduates, Elon President Leo M. Lambert shared his hope that each man and woman seated before him would “live a life of joyfulness,” a quality he learned firsthand from an older sister who suffered from severe epilepsy. His sister, Louise Lambert, experienced chronic seizures, injuries that would result from those seizures, and even a malignant brain tumor during her 40 years of life.
Yet memories of Louise were not about hardship, he said. She was “the most joyful person I have ever known” who “honored anyone who walked into a room with a huge, intelligent, authentic smile.”
Lambert said he wanted graduates to follow such an example. “Today, you are surrounded by some of the people who love you most in the world,” he added. “Remember on this special day that your life is a gift to so many people other than yourself. And when you live it joyfully, in the spirit of giving, gratitude and concern for the happiness of others, your spirit will live on past your mortal years on this earth.”