UNC congratulated another graduating class over the weekend with the university’s December commencement in the Dean E. Smith Center.

On the unusually warm Sunday afternoon, more than 2,000 students were turning their tassels.

Having a faculty member deliver the mid-year commencement address is a tradition at Carolina. This year it was Kelly Hogan speaking to the new graduating class.

Hogan is the director of instructional innovation for UNC and is the senior STEM lecturer in the Biology Department. She left the graduates with three parting thoughts.

“Continually look for opportunities to reflect on and challenge your own perspective,” she said. “Second, to widen your perspective, embrace the diversity around you, use others personal stories, use evidence and reasoning like your professors here have taught you to do.

“Third, be open to vulnerabilities and accept that risks can end with great rewards if you are willing to accept your imperfections along the way.”

Hogan admitted in the speech to having to change her perspective as a teacher after her first few years at Carolina and encouraged the newly-minted graduates to always be willing to accept new ideas.

The graduation ceremony was the final public event presided over by outgoing UNC System President Tom Ross, who will be taking a future position at the UNC School of Government.

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