SUNY Old Westbury lauded its 2018 graduating class with its first-ever ceremony at NYCB Live: Home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on May 20, 2018. The class of 1,300 students from the Schools of Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, and Professional Studies made the 52nd Commencement the largest in College history.
Photos from the College's 52nd Commencement ceremony can be viewed in the SUNY Old Westbury online photo album for the event.
In his Commencement address, College President Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III remarked on how Commencement is a beginning, and said: "it is up to each of you from this moment forward to go out and put your talents and learning into practice — improving life for yourself, your families, your friends and your community as you do."
The graduates were greeted and congratulated by this year's Commencement Speaker, The Honorable Carl E. Heastie, speaker of the New York State Assembly. Heastie described the importance of service, and that success doesn't happen immediately - sharing a story of a job he had in College that he was fired from. “The job that you should have is just to make the world a little better place than when you came in. And I hope that you do it . . . Think it, believe it, and then do it.”
Along with the awarding of degrees, Commencement included recognition of the recipients of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence, Brianna Levy, and Joshua Stickell, who was also awarded the President’s Medal for Scholarship.
