Crews had precisely aligned 4,602 chairs across the vast lawn Sunday morning, and yet Linfield University’s 2023 Commencement was standing-room-only. Family members and loved ones came from throughout Oregon, New York, Hawaii and even Bolivia to celebrate the lives 570 graduates had led as they stood on the precipice of a new one.
“This marks the transition between what was and what will be — thresholds are the site where past and present mingle, weave and take hold of each other,” said Linfield Chaplain Jeremy Richards during the invocation. “It is in the present moment that the future takes hold of the past and offers it gratitude, and where the past lets go, trusting in all the future holds.”
A class of resilience
The significance of those past experiences was noted by nearly everyone who spoke. As Lexie Matsunaga, the student speaker from Aiea, Hawaii, said, no one could not have predicted what their years at Linfield would hold.
The biochemistry and molecular biology major said that although their time began like any other first-year student’s, history had other plans. Scattered first by the pandemic, the students came back and dealt with wildfires, ice storms, isolation and building anew.
“There has been magnificent growth in us as individuals and us as a community,” she said. “For every curveball thrown our way, the class of 2023 has answered back with strength, resilience and compassion … there’s no doubt that whatever you aspire to be will become a reality, and I cannot wait to see all of the beautiful things you achieve with the skills and strengths you have built in your time here.”
Dr. Seth Olivera ’01, the commencement speaker, said that resilience is built through adversity, and that resilience is a priceless gift.
Now the director of functional neurosurgery for the Providence Brain and Spine Institute, he too has faced down devastating circumstances. While in his residency in neurosurgery at the University of Florida, he received a cancer diagnosis. It was those difficulties, he said, that built the strength to become the man he is today.
Resiliency is not built alone, he said, but with those whom we love and who love us. He choked up slightly as he recalled meeting his wife at Linfield, planning their future lives together while they sat underneath the Old Oak that stood at the time next to Pioneer Hall. But that was not his only Linfield relationship that has lasted a lifetime; when they married, every faculty member from the Department of Biology was in attendance and many remain his friends to this day.
President Miles K. Davis hailed what the class of 2023 had already overcome at such a young age.
“Fully half of their time in the past four years was impacted by rapidly changing health protocols, online classes, canceled sports and performance seasons, mask mandates, testing and isolation housing, among so many other things,” he said. “But they’re here, they made it, and the lessons they learned in these four years will hold them in good stead as they deal with other challenges and obstacles in their futures.”
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Recognizing achievement on and off the field
President Davis made a slight deviation from planned remarks to congratulate the Wildcat softball team on securing a spot in the NCAA Division III College World Series by winning the Super Regionals the day before — six members of the team walked in the commencement ceremony.
The victory lent an added sense of cheer to an already joyful weekend. In addition to more than 5,000 Commencement guests, Linfield also hosted the NCAA Super Regionals and a number of commencement celebrations. Saturday, ball-game attire mixed with academic regalia, and sports reporters mixed with Baccalaureate attendees.
As pitcher Tayah Kelley of Myrtle Creek – and Linfield’s all-time leader in strikeouts – threw the final strikeout of the Super Regionals, the team screamed, cried and jumped into each other’s arms. Many had earlier attended the athletic stole ceremony in their uniforms, and proud parents were able to celebrate the culmination of their academic and athletic careers in a combined weekend.
Earlier that day, accounting major Tanner Coulter of Canby and his mom, Heather, hugged. Coulter had just received a lavender stole with a rainbow symbolizing his LGBTQIA identity at the Lavender Senior Recognition Ceremony. The first in his family to graduate from college, he now has a job in the audit department of Portland-based Geffen Mesher.
“I was so ecstatic when I heard Tanner was accepted into Linfield — that was the happiest day of our lives, knowing he was going to fulfill his dreams to go to college,” she said. “To get to be here and see him walk across that stage and get his B.A. is so amazing, it’s surreal.”
The ceremony was one of many that day — there was the Black Excellence ceremony, Asian and Pacific Islander celebration and the Latinx Dinner, conducted in Spanish with English translation. Students of all faiths came together at the Baccalaureate, and dozens of seniors received individual awards at the Senior Awards event.
In the moments before he spoke at Black Excellence, Spencer Lee was sitting with his parents, Kelly and Frank Lee. Though they’d made the trip from Bellingham, Washington, many times to watch their son play wide receiver for the football team, this trip was unique.
Linfield, Lee said, held much more for him than he could’ve imagined when he accepted the offer of admission.
“I didn’t know I needed this,” he said. “I didn’t know I needed the guidance and mentoring and the place in the community I would have here — it helped build me into the man I am today, and the character I have.”
Soon, he may play a similar role in the lives of others — he has accepted a teaching job at McMinnville High School.
“I’m just happy and excited and proud and glad I’m able to be here to support him on this momentous weekend,” said his father, adding that not many in their family graduated from college. “As far as his future is concerned, as far as our family legacy is concerned, he’s in position to take the torch and continue. Just take it to a high level as he starts out in life as a college graduate, with a career as an educator.”
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A celebration for all
President Davis noted that while Saturday was a day for celebrating individual students, on Sunday, everyone came together as one to honor the graduates.
Cheers were heard across campus as each name was read. Then, with a final roar, the Class of 2023 was presented and recessed back through the crowd.
After the ceremony, Coulter, who had acquired a number of cords and stoles in the 24 hours since the Lavender Ceremony, smiled and hugged friends, professors and family members.
“Seeing him walk across the stage with that diploma? When his name was called, my heart exploded and I started crying,” his mother said. “I had to look at my mom — she loved it. He was our first college graduate.”
Her son echoed the sentiment.
“I’m lost for words. As I walked across the stage, it hit me that … I’m moving onto another chapter of my life,” he said. “I’m filled with joy. I’m filled with excitement, I’m filled with accomplishment. I’m just happy.”
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By the numbers:
- Total: 573 degrees to 570 graduates, with three awarded double degrees
- Undergraduates: 544
- Graduate Students: 26
- College of Arts & Sciences: 182 graduates
- Linfield University-Good Samaritan School of Nursing: 305 graduates
- School of Business: 72 graduates
- College of Arts & Sciences and School of Business: 11 double-major graduates
- Estimated Commencement participation: 400
