‘Rising above challenges…’ watch the 2024 Spring Commencement Video

Rising above challenges. Belonging to this community. First generation graduate pride. These sentiments and more highlight the UW-Green Bay 2024 Spring Commencement video. Watch and hear from the Class of 2024, now part of the more than 50,000 Phoenix alumni family.

Transcript: A lot of challenges in the past couple of years, you know, from the swim team to, you know, academically you always rise above those challenges and you always come out. The other side is a better, stronger person. So, Phoenix Rise. UW-Green Bay is an amazing school. The campus is a community. The greater Green Bay area surrounding it is a community and everybody is here to help everybody else and watches out for everybody else. I’ll always love UWGB. I feel really good to be graduating today. I think, like it just started to hit me. So give me a few minutes. You know? It feels great. I’ve been going part-time because I’ve been working full-time, so this means even more. So, It’s been a long road but we’re here. Graduating from Green Bay for me is just so I’ve had the best four years here. I’m very fortunate. I’m just I just feel very blessed. As a first gen, my family is really proud. They are really excited. I’ve never really seen them act this way. So, it’s been really heartwarming to see. Being a first-generation student, I’m so proud that I get to show this to my parents and my grandparents. They are immigrants from Laos, and you know, it means everything to them and for me. That, you know, they came to this country knowing that they have a child that graduating today as a Business Management student. There are so many inspirational teachers here at UWGB. To thank a few personally, I would like to thank Cliff Ganyard and Professor Shelton. Their amazing. Professor Jeon, Woo Jeon, Dr. J. He inspired me a lot. He helped me a lot through these times, and he’s just a great guy. The flexibility of the online program is really been there for me and really helped and I love the program that whatever I thought I could take on, I would take on. And the staff, even though it’s online, I still had a lot of staff that would help a lot of the professors. So I would strongly advise this program. I’m very excited about my future. I actually just started a job with an insurance company, so I am looking forward to that and I’m looking forward to where that takes me. So, with my Master’s degree in Psychology, Sports Psychology, I’m really interested in just being able to help people and work with athletes or exercisers and help them overcome barriers. I’m really excited about my future because I have a job at the Trout Museum of Art in Appleton. I’m really excited to be part of their projects because we’re setting up a new building and I’m really excited to be a small team of women who are making like the art like art scene in Appleton possible. Mechanical Engineering Technologies is going to help me get a leg up on my career. I really have a job right now, so that’ll really help me. I’m Phoenix proud because I just love it here. It’s a small-town feel, obviously in Green Bay and it’s a community aspect. It’s a great place to be a great place to learn, and I’m definitely going to miss it. I’m so proud to be a Phoenix because the professors here care about you and it’s such a loving and caring environment to be around. I’m proud to be a Phoenix because I grew up in the Green Bay area, so I did the Phuture Phoenix program in elementary school, and I used to see the older students and I, I don’t know. I just think I’m proud to be one of them now. Go Phoenix! Go Phoenix!