Western Kentucky University celebrated the Class of 2025 on the evening of Thursday, May 8, starting with Topper Walk and ending with a fireworks display at Big Red Bash.
Joined by faculty from each academic college, the 2025 graduates waved red towels and greeted family and friends as they made their way down the Hill into Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium for WKU’s 197th Commencement.
WKU conferred 3,420 degrees and certificates to spring and summer 2025 graduates -- 97 associate, 2,108 bachelor’s, 598 master’s, 50 doctoral, 15 specialist degrees, 442 undergraduate certificates and 110 graduate certificates.
President Timothy C. Caboni addressed the Class of 2025, asking them to assess areas of personal growth and leaving them with a challenge for the future.
“Graduates, as you conclude your careers as students and reflect on your time on the Hill, I hope that you can see your personal growth - socially, intellectually and emotionally - and recognize that you have transformed, you are a different person today than when you began with us. And you leave WKU with our shared institutional values,” he said.
“And I challenge you with this: be a light in a sometimes-dark world. Choose good over evil, right over wrong, integrity over expediency, selflessness over selfishness. And make sure that you're not just focused on making a good living, but that you make a good life for yourself, for your families, for your communities and for our world,” President Caboni said.
In his remarks to graduates, Student Government Association President Sam Kurtz, a graduating senior from Bowling Green, offered advice to graduates.
“There is currently a lot of crazy things going on in the world. But there is one thing that is in your direct control, and that is your character,” Kurtz said.
“I’m here today to give you some of my pillars that I live by that made me the person I am today,” Kurtz continued. “The first and most important thing I have learned is that whatever you do, do it to help others.”
