University of La Verne Celebrates Multicultural Graduation

More than 80 University of La Verne students from diverse backgrounds came together to celebrate completing bachelor’s and master’s degrees during the Multicultural Graduation Celebration on Jan. 27.

The event gives students and their families an opportunity to mark the occasion in a cultural context.

University of La Verne President Devorah Lieberman praised graduates for appreciating diversity and the importance of community.

“Never stop experiencing new perspectives, never stop learning, and never stop giving back,” she said.

Professor of Public Administration Dr. Matthew Witt, who delivered the keynote address, spoke to graduates about how people spend much of their lives figuring out rules and how great leaders sometimes emerge outside of those boundaries.

“We who gather here, today, know that the graduating class of 2018 didn’t get here by following rules that don’t add up,” Witt said. “Here is a room full of the exceptional. This I know because I have been in the classroom with so many so like the bold and beautiful I see here today.”