Plenty to be proud of: Tanisha Choudhary '25, Psychology major and former Publicity Manager for SMC's South Asian Society, poses with her parents at the 2025 Asian Pacific Islander Graduate Celebration. / Photo by Richard Trinth
For the Class of 2025, the Cultural Graduate Celebrations Offer Solidarity and Celebration
Highlights and snapshots from the Intercultural Center's graduate celebrations: Lavender, Asian Pacific Islander, Black, and Latinx. For graduating Gaels, it’s a chance to recognize successes, obstacles overcome, and the many supporters along the way.
In the bustling days leading up to Commencement, the Cultural Graduate Celebrations provide something singular: a chance for many graduating Gaels to stop, reflect, and commemorate their distinctive journeys—and those who walked alongside them.
Each May, the Saint Mary’s Intercultural Center–which marked its 20th anniversary this year—hosts four graduate celebrations: Lavender, Asian Pacific Islander, Black, and Latinx. At each event, family and friends, faculty and staff, gather to cheer on graduating students as they enter their next chapter.
In addition, at each celebration, awards are presented to student leaders who have made an outsize impact on the Saint Mary’s campus and in their community. The celebrations also recognize staff and faculty who have made a difference in the lives of the graduating class.
While the Cultural Graduate Celebrations are more intimate than the upcoming Commencement ceremony, for many, they are uniquely meaningful. The annual events offer graduating Gaels a space to both commemorate accomplishments and recognize obstacles overcome. This year, especially, the speakers at each event addressed the challenges their communities faced and are facing, on campus and in the wider world.
As Mitchell Foster, the Director of the Intercultural Center, noted in remarks at the Lavender Graduate Celebration, “These graduates here in front of you have defied the odds by choosing to live authentically and unapologetically in the face of very real threats…To the graduates, you are seen, you are valid, and let tonight be an indicator that all your hard work, both visible and invisible, is paying off.”
Here are some highlights from the 2025 Cultural Graduate Celebration.
Lavender Graduate Celebration
“Expressing yourself authentically and unapologetically is resistance. Being different is resistance. Being joyful is resistance. Loving in the face of adversity is resistance.”
— Student Keynote Speaker Cecilia Vanderveen ’25, Justice, Community, and Leadership: Education Studies major
Outstanding Student Leader Award
Desiree Sturrock ’25, Environmental Studies and Music major
Michael Spiegel ’25, Business Administration: Leadership major
Paul Giurlanda Award
Shaunna Vella, Program Director for LEAP (Liberal Education for Art Professionals)
Asian Pacific Islander Graduate Celebration
“I have realized that being proud of who I am, being proud of being API, that is what creates this beautiful community that has gathered here today. The API community is full of some of the proudest people that I have ever met in my life; proud of their ancestry, proud of where they come from, proud of the community that they built.”
— Student Keynote Speaker Sarah Bagdon ’25, Creative Writing major
Outstanding Student Leader Award
— Melanie Maira Parlan ’25, Dance: Choreography
Dean Grace Cardenas-Tolentino Award
— Mitchell Foster, Director of the Intercultural Center
— Yin Yuan, Associate Professor of English
Black Graduate Celebration
“Today, I stand not just as a student, but as a reflection of generations who dreamed of this moment….Never forget that our Blackness is not a weakness. It is power. It is brilliance. It is enough.”
— Student Keynote Speaker Amana Williams ’25, Politics major
Corliss Watkins Outstanding Student Leader Award
— Kalilah Epperson-Lee ’25, Sociology major
Dean Thomas Earl Brown Faculty Award
— Nicole Brown, Associate Professor of Sociology
Pamela Y. George Staff Award
— Carnetta Porter, Staff Therapist, African-American/Black Student Focus, CAPS
Latinx Graduate Celebration
“My message for my class of graduating Latinx students is to take a moment and appreciate the help that you have received to be here today. Yet at the same time, I want to ask that you don’t stop fighting for what you need to be successful… Be radical, and do not stop reaching for the stars.”
— Student Keynote Speaker Natalie Alaniz ’25, Biology major
Outstanding Student Leader Award
Xochilt Delgado ’25, Health Sciences major
Brother Manuel Vega Latinx Empowerment Award
Rogelio Lopez, Director of the MFA in Dance
A note from the Intercultural Center—These celebrations would not have been possible without the 2024-2025 IC Team: Director Mitchell Foster; Assistant Director Kimiya Shokri; Social Justice Advocates: Gabriela Canedo, Kaila Harris, ‘25, Melody Ng, Rebekah Weldele, and Rose Velasquez; Cultural Events Coordinators: Alexis Hackett, Amana Williams ‘25, Malan Greene, Olivia Burke, and Rebecca Carranza
