The cheers echoed through the Walter E. Washington Convention Center long before the first graduate crossed the stage.
Families waved handmade signs from the crowd. Children perched on shoulders searching for parents in caps and gowns. Cell phones rose into the air as graduates entered beneath the sound of Verdi’s “Grand March,” processing alongside faculty, trustees and university leaders during the University of the District of Columbia’s 49th Commencement Ceremony on Saturday morning.
The university celebrated over 840 graduates during the ceremony, representing programs across its colleges, schools and workforce development pathways.
For many in the audience, the ceremony represented far more than a degree.
Some graduates had returned to school after years away from the classroom. Others balanced coursework with jobs or caregiving responsibilities. The university’s oldest graduate was 72. The youngest was 19.
As applause filled the convention center, President Maurice D. Edington reminded graduates that the moment belonged not only to them, but also to the people who helped carry them there.
“You have done the work. You have earned this moment,” Edington told the Class of 2026 during his opening remarks. “And now you are ready for what comes next.”
The ceremony unfolded during a milestone year for the institution, which has spent the past several months commemorating 175 years of service to Washington, D.C., as the city’s only public university.
Throughout the morning, Professor Johnny Butler, instructor and director of choral activities, and the UDC Chorale stirred the crowd with musical selections that echoed throughout the convention center, including a moving rendition of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.” Associate Professor of Music Leah Claiborne accompanied the chorale on piano as audience members rose to their feet and sang along.
Student speaker Robel Haileyesus, a graduate of the Aviation Maintenance Technology program housed at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, delivered one of the morning’s most personal moments.
Four years ago, Haileyesus moved to the United States and began rebuilding his life far from home and family. Standing before hundreds of graduates and their loved ones, he reflected on uncertainty and the decision to keep moving forward despite it.
“Where you start does not determine where you can go,” he told his classmates.
Later in his remarks, he spoke directly to the reality many students experienced while pursuing their degrees.
“Alongside our studies, many of us were more than students,” Haileyesus said. “We worked multiple jobs, raised families, and carried responsibilities beyond the classroom.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who delivered the keynote address and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, spoke candidly about leadership, public service and her lifelong connection to both Washington and the university.
“My mom, Joan Bowser, is here; she is also a UDC alum,” Bowser said. “She came here to study nursing as the mother of five children. I am so proud to be part of her story, and by extension, UDC’s story.”
Her address moved easily between humor, civic reflection and personal stories from nearly two decades in public office.
“Be kind, be amazing, be humble,” Bowser told the graduates. “Believe in the kindness of the people around you. And always, always bet on yourself and bet on D.C.”
Board of Trustees Chair Warner H. Session reminded graduates that education carries both opportunity and responsibility, invoking the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.”
The ceremony also included the formal conferral of honorary degrees upon Bowser and longtime environmental and community advocates Dennis and Zandra Chestnut, whose decades of work restoring and advocating for communities east of the Anacostia River were recognized throughout Commencement weekend.
As doctoral candidates were hooded and graduates crossed the stage one by one, cheers erupted throughout the convention center. Some families shouted names from the stands while others held phones high above the crowd, trying to capture the exact second their graduate reached the stage.
In the crowd, Donte Brooks’s mother watched proudly as her son crossed the stage to receive his Bachelor of Arts in Administration of Justice degree, one of hundreds of families celebrating throughout the morning ceremony.
“I’m just so proud of him,” she said afterward, still clutching her phone filled with graduation photos.
Near the close of the ceremony, Edington delivered a final charge to the graduates, urging them to use their education in service of others.
“Make space where there is none. Open doors where they have been closed,” he said. “And remember that your impact is measured not only by what you achieve, but by what you make possible for others.”
Then, after the tassels had been turned and the alma mater faded into applause, the Class of 2026 recessed into the hallways of the convention center — embracing relatives, posing for photographs and stepping into the next chapter of their lives as the university’s newest alumni.