UNL 2019 undergraduate class honored at Pinnacle Bank Arena, Adam Foss gives speech at College of Law graduation at Lied Center
All of that hard work finally paid off for thousands of UNL students, who received their diploma on Saturday.
The 150th UNL graduating class was honored at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Graduates say receiving their degree is a sure sign that all of that hard work finally paid off.
“It seems like it took forever but yet, it was just like a blink of the eye, and now I’m done. Three years ago today, I was moving out of my freshman dorm, and now here I am graduating,” said Payton Kearney, an Elementary Education major.
“It’s kind of surreal, it doesn’t feel like it’s been four years already. There’s a lot of hard work that definitely goes into it. So to be here at Pinnacle Bank Arena is really exciting, I think you feel more graduated here,” said Mason Strahl, a Mechanical Engineering major.
This class of students will join hundreds of thousands of husker alumni’s around the world.
They say the four years went by fast!
“It’s kind of crazy looking back on everything that we’ve done in the past four years just because it goes by so quick and then you look back and you’re like, I did all the hard work and now here we are at the end of all of this,” said Sarah Gervais, a Secondary Special Education major.
The commencement speaker for the graduation ceremony was Dr. Sherri M. Jones.
UNL Chanellor Ronnie Green gave opening and closing remarks.
It was a day those graduates will never forget!
“It’s a good feeling for sure, it’s a badge of accomplishment, you get to go out in the world and put a stamp on something, help people somewhere, make an impact on someone’s life to change the world. It will be fun,” said Evan Struebing, a Nutrition Exercise and Health major.
“To be able to be an alumni, and hopefully encourage my students one day, to come to Nebraska and UNL and experience the same things that I got to experience as a student,” said Kearney.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Over at the Lied Center for Performing Arts, the UNL college of Law invited Adam Foss to be their commencement speaker.
He’s a former prosecutor working to end prison overcrowding.
“Coming out of here with this diploma is not just something to go and put on your wall. This is actually like a tool, it is a tool that can build pathways and bridges to allow other people who have never had the opportunity to be here to be here,” said Foss.
Foss is a fierce advocate for criminal justice reform.
The graduating class of law students voted for him to be the keynote speaker.
Foss wanted to use this opportunity to let them know, they have a chance to make difference in this world.
“When we walk out of places like this, we’ve learned lots of things, but two lessons that we are deprived out throughout our entire academic career is how to treat someone with dignity and how to treat someone like a human being if they don’t look like you or come from where you come from,” said Foss.
Foss believes in the importance of the role of the prosecutor in ending mass incarceration in America.
He made a very successful Ted Talk on the subject. It received over 2 million views.
He has also worked alongside celebrities like Kanye West and John Legend on the issue.
