The morning of May 17 was misty – figuratively and literally – as 646 seniors lined up for their procession to the Commencement tent. Snapping pictures with faculty members, sharing laughs with friends, and hugging family members who’d stopped by for pre-ceremony congratulations, Bryant University’s Class of 2025 felt ready to take on the world. 

"It honestly hasn’t hit me yet, but I’m beyond excited. Once I go under the Archway, that will probably be my favorite moment of the year,” said Kerry Afonso, a Finance and Team and Project Management double major whose internship at TRC Companies Inc. will turn into a fulltime position following graduation. 

Donning her black cap and gown, Afonso was accompanied by her mom, Ana Ribeiro, who was all smiles. 

“I’m beyond proud,” said Ribeiro, who is battling cancer and would walk beside her daughter during the procession. “Bryant is an amazing school."  

Following a performance of the national anthem by Janell Gamboa, Pastor Kevin White delivered an invocation, with Board of Trustees Chair D. Ellen Wilson ’79 officially convening the ceremony.  

“You have taken thousands, if not millions of steps to get here today,” President Ross Gittell, Ph.D., told graduates. “And this morning, as you walked through Bryant’s Archway, you stepped into a future shaped by your experience and growth here at Bryant University.” 

On this momentous day, Gittell said, the Bryant community was celebrating more than the graduates’ academic achievements. 

“We are celebrating a quality that I believe defines Bryant graduates in general, but your class, perhaps more than any other: beautiful grit,” he said. “During your time at Bryant, it was beautiful grit that enabled you to work together to turn barriers into breakthroughs, setbacks into solutions, and challenges into opportunities.” 

Honorary Degree recipient and Bryant trustee David Beirne ’85 echoed that idea of grit in his Commencement address – delivered exactly 40 years from his own Bryant graduation.  

Beirne drew laughs when he gave a shout-out to sleepless seniors arriving at graduation from the traditional sunrise breakfast at Parente’s Restaurant. But he also urged the class of 2025 to put their “imprint on the future." 

“You are the CEO of You, Yourself Incorporated,” said Beirne, a venture capitalist, head of the private equity firm X10 Capital, and former Bryant board chair who supported the construction of the David M. ’85 and Terry Beirne Stadium Complex.  

As that CEO, it’s up to each graduate to define success for themselves and write their own story, he said, passing down a lesson from his father. 

Beirne encouraged graduates to develop a business plan for their lives that “defines your purpose and sets goals for your life in order to maximize your opportunity.” 

“Someone is going to win; why not you?” he asked them.  

Beirne, who during his career ignored advice to stick to “safer” choices offered by everyone from his father to Bill Gates, told graduates that it is okay to struggle, but it’s up to them alone to determine their life’s direction. 

“You will quickly learn that job security lives inside of you,” he said. “It is in your talent, your work ethic, your intellect, your grit, your grind, your willingness to sacrifice.” 

Beirne concluded by urging graduates to “maximize your opportunity and write your best story. 

“Today, you are finalizing an important chapter in your book of life,” he said. “Start the next chapter by swinging hard. You have spent the last four years preparing to conquer the world. You have acquired the skills necessary to lead the next generation.  

“You are truly ‘real-world ready,’” he said. 

Bryant also conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration to Sarah Frost, chief of hospital operations and president of Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital. 

John Boccuzzi III, who graduated with a major in Team and Project Management and concentrations in Biology and Applied Analytics, delivered the Student Charge. In his speech, Boccuzzi nodded to the class’s shared Bryant traditions — including jubilant celebrations and the transcendent joy of Chicken Parm Thursdays at Salmanson Dining Hall — before looking ahead to their bright futures. “Bryant has taught us how to lead, how to follow, and how to grow into the people we were meant to become,” he reflected. 

Their journey, suggested Boccuzzi, has been guided by a host of mentors, who have taught the students to be curious, to be thoughtful, and to be kind. “As we step beyond these gates, remember that we carry with us more than knowledge; we carry the lessons of those who shaped us,” he noted. 

His peers, Boccuzzi shared, will always have a special place among his own mentors and guides, and concluded by quoting the play Wicked, “So much of me is made of what I learned from you. You’ll be with me like a handprint on my heart,” said Boccuzzi, who will be begin a career at Epic Systems after graduation. 

Also preparing for the next chapter, Boccuzzi’s fellow graduates are going onto a variety careers – whether it’s selling medical devices for Boston Scientific for Global Supply Chain Management major Kellen Austermann or, for Environmental Science major Jenavieve Lyon, becoming an environmental project engineer for Chapel Engineering. 

Applied Economics major Joseph Belsanti will go onto a career at Twelve Points Wealth Management and is excited to put to work the skills that Bryant taught him. 

“Bryant gives you a lot of opportunities, especially with our alumni network; you can learn a lot from them,” said Belsanti, noting that one of the organization’s co-founders is a Bryant alum.  

From years of getting meals together, playing with one another on sports teams, and enjoying campus activities, this group’s bonds run deep. 

“The Class of 2025 is such a close group and the memories that our group has made together have been my favorite part,” said Accounting major Erica Salvucci, who is preparing for graduate school.