Celebrating Emory's Class of 2024: The 179th Commencement

While each year’s graduates deserve celebration, Commencement for the undergraduate Class of 2024 held special meaning for students and their families.

“So many students in this class were born around 9/11 and then had no prom or graduation because COVID-19 changed their senior year,” said Kim Ajy of Johns Creek, Georgia. Her son Samir Ajy — an Oxford College continuee — graduated from Emory College of Arts and Sciences with a degree in political science and plans to take a gap year while studying for the law school admission exam. “This is the first opportunity for them to have a true graduation celebration,” she said. “I’m so glad we can celebrate them now.”

The celebrations weren’t confined to undergraduate ceremonies, however. Case in point: Sydney McCabe, who graduated first in her Emory Law class with a JD in transactional law, had a 22-member cheering section on hand, ranging from a 14-month-old nephew to her 90-year-old grandmother.

And Ijeoma Nwaobia traveled from Botswana to see her daughter, Precious Adanna Nwaobia, graduate from Rollins School of Public Health with a focus in behavioral, social and health education sciences. Her interests in program evaluation and health equity are no surprise to her brother George, who says concern for the welfare of others is what drew Precious to the field of public health. “I am in awe of the energy and passion she demonstrates,” he said.

Passion is also a hallmark of Kenneth Williams from Lawrenceville, Georgia, who earned his MD from Emory School of Medicine and will begin his anesthesia residency in Dallas, Texas, next month. “He’s very hard working and very passionate about his future profession,” said his mother, Jaicy Williams. “He’s known he wanted to go into medicine since he was in elementary school.”

For other students, their Emory experience took them down a different path than what they originally anticipated — and they realized that was okay.

First-generation student Paul Cruz Jr. began Emory’s nursing program believing his main interest was the emergency room, but he was soon won over by young patients. His next step will be a nursing residency at Texas Children’s Pediatrics in his hometown of Houston, Texas. He got so much from the program that his mom, Angie Barajas, expects him to return to Emory when he’s ready to pursue his nurse practitioner degree.

Sometimes being at Emory does more than open a student’s eyes to their career path. It can open their door to the world.

Cody Seitz, who attended Emory as a Questbridge Scholar, hails from Anchorage, Alaska. He studied marketing and international business through Goizueta Business School and also minored in Japanese. During his time at Emory, he did online research with the University of Tokyo, working with the engineering department to create artificial intelligence that can analyze the speech of non-native English speakers. He will return to Tokyo after graduation and plans to teach for a few years before pursuing graduate studies there.

Nick Weaver of Havana, Illinois, didn’t study abroad while working on his master’s in public health, but he wants his work to have a worldwide impact. He’ll do exactly that when he begins his role as an associate scientist with the American Cancer Society.

“My undergraduate degree is in molecular biology, which taught me the mechanics of disease in the cell,” he said. “Studying genetics and molecular epidemiology at Rollins helps take that to the population level. Now I’m equipped with the data skills to draw conclusions about population health. I didn’t have that bridge beforehand to understand why things are like they are.”

A search for deeper connections and understanding contributed to Kendra Plating choosing Candler School of Theology for her doctor of ministry studies.

“I knew that just about every denomination would be represented here, and I wanted those interdenominational conversations,” she said. “What I’ve appreciated most is having time with my Black colleagues. Just hearing their theological voices has been so enriching and educational for me. The diversity was the reason I chose Candler, and it has taught me so much.”

The community Plating found during her studies is echoed as an Emory highlight for many graduates.

“It has been really nice to have that sisterhood and be among like-minded college women,” Goizueta graduate Makari Patterson said of her sorority membership. “The organization is very oriented in community service. Joining them has probably been the highlight of my college career.” She’ll return home to Chicago with a degree in marketing that focuses on arts management and a minor in African American studies.

Colorado native Katherine Lindquist, who earned her PhD in anthropology from Laney Graduate School, has fond memories of singing karaoke with her cohort, where the group would “dedicate our favorite songs to different social theorists.” Her go-to karaoke artist? ABBA, easily. Though, the social theorist dedication can change on a whim.

Emory College graduates Rishika Nahata, Noah Marchuck and Kendall Parsons — whose studies encompassed neuroscience and behavioral biology, psychology, Spanish and more — learned to deeply value their time together on campus, from planned activities to casual moments.

“My favorite memory is just watching the sunset with friends,” said Parsons, who came to Emory from Fort Mills, South Carolina. “The view from the ledge by Kaldi’s in the Emory Student Center is really pretty.”

Their times of watching sunsets together from the Emory Student Center have ended, but the Class of 2024 is ready for its next adventure. No matter what they studied or where they may go from here, the sentiment on nursing graduate Shay Gutowski’s mortarboard encapsulates how each student’s hard work at Emory will now pay off: “All this labor and finally a delivery.”