Class of 2025 Steps Forward: A Celebration of Courage, Commitment, and Community
UCLA Luskin’s newest graduates honored in dual ceremonies with powerful reflections on justice, leadership, and perseverance from student speakers and former U.S. Ambassador Nathalie Rayes, MPP ’99.
By Stan PaulCommencement ceremonies for UCLA Luskin’s Class of 2025 were held in two separate ceremonies on June 13 in Royce Hall and Ackerman Union Grand Ballroom. All in all, 257 graduate students in public policy, social welfare and urban and regional studies, a dozen doctoral candidates from social welfare and urban planning, and 121 undergraduate public affairs majors walked across the stage to receive their degrees.Family and friends filled both venues joining the celebrations of achievement from the number one public university in the nation.“Today is a celebration of accomplishment — honoring you, the class of 2025, upon completion of your academic degrees,” said UCLA Luskin Interim Dean Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris in her opening remarks, following the traditional multi-lingual greeting in 14 languages by graduating students — a longtime Luskin tradition.Each of the School’s programs selected one outstanding graduate to receive the departmental Student of the Year award. They were Viviana Morales, MPP; Omarri Chrishaun Beck, MSW; and Norma Hernandez, MURP.Cameron Manning, MPP, student speaker for his class, shared a message of thanks to family, faculty, staff and others, with “gratitude for professors, who challenged our thinking and gratitude to classmates who stepped into uncertain, vulnerable and dangerous places — because justice demands it.” He cautioned that gratitude requires honesty, telling his fellow classmates, “We are graduating at a moment in which democracy feels fragile,” noting current events locally, across the country, and the world.Also speaking at the graduate ceremony were Omarri Chrishaun Beck, MSW, and Ashley Katie Elias, MURP.The undergraduate student speaker was Trinity Lia Haywood, who talked about the impact the public affairs major has made on her and her classmates and the importance of the program’s interdisciplinary nature.“As public affairs students, we have learned how communities can confront social problems collectively, how to analyze and interpret information effectively, and most important, how to be patient and strategic when evoking tangible, lasting progress and change.” Speaking to her classmates, she said, “As we leave here today, the question should not be, ‘are we going to impact the world?’ but the answer is rather, ‘are you excited to see all the different ways that we will.”Loukaitou-Sideris introduced this year’s commencement keynote speaker for both ceremonies, Nathalie Rayes, MPP ’99 – a member of the School’s second cohort of students. Since graduation, Rayes has had a successful career in private and public service, culminating in her service as U.S. Ambassador to Croatia, which she recently concluded.Her path was anything but linear, a lesson she impressed upon our graduating Luskin students. Her journey began in the mid-1980s when she arrived with her parents in the U.S. from Venezuela, “following their North Star” in search of opportunity, she said.From her first day of school in her new country, Rayes was learning and living the lessons that would guide her. She said that as an immigrant, she often felt as if she were straddling two worlds. But, she keep showing up, “over and over again.”“Success belongs to those that persist. That is a valuable lesson to carry with you, especially as you step into the world of public policy and this growing uncertainty for public servants and the institutions they uphold,” she told the graduates.Rayes noted that the class of 2025 is graduating in a time of more interconnectedness and division than ever before, “with our institutions being questioned — many under attack — and where trust is fractured.”“Now the world is waiting for you to lead. Not someday, but now, because the real leadership is not about power. It’s about responsibility. It’s about showing up when it’s hard, it’s about inviting others in, especially those whose voices have been left out. You don’t need someone’s permission to lead, just the courage to begin.”Watch the full graduate ceremony and view photos.Watch the full undergraduate ceremony and view photos.“As we leave here today, the question should not be, ‘are we going to impact the world?’ but the answer is rather, ‘are you excited to see all the different ways that we will.”
