Success. Excellence. Opportunity. These were some of the words that trended throughout Miami Dade College’s five 2014 commencement ceremonies to reflect the accomplishments and bright futures ahead for the College’s nearly 15,000 graduates.
As always, each send-off was a celebration of the highest order, featuring high-level speakers including U.S. Vice President Joe Biden,
Duke University President Dr. Richard Brodhead, City University of New York Chancellor James B. Milliken, New York University President Dr. John Sexton and Ford Foundation President Darren Walker.
MDC graduated students from 113 countries this year alone, whose flags were marched across the stage at the beginning of each ceremony to the proud cheers of graduates and their loved ones.
“I don’t know anyone who could fail to be moved by the display of the flags or the pride on display here in this auditorium,” said Vice President Biden at the ceremony for MDC’s Homestead and InterAmerican campuses. “The history of the journey of this country in my view has been a constant parade of flags, from Native Americans inhabiting these shores, to flags of early European settlers, and our ancestral memories of African slaves. To this has been added 200 years of that parade that continues to this day of flags of immigrants drawn by the central promise of the United States of America – the promise that, in America, anything is possible. And that America can be seen here today in the sharp relief of this amazing Class of 2014.”
MDC’s graduation rate skyrocketed this year, with gains in all areas. While hundreds of job-ready graduates are jumping into the workforce, others are continuing their studies at top U.S. universities.
– Adapted from College Forum (June 2014)