Class of 2023 graduates from Northern

285 Montana State University-Northern students received 420 degrees this weekend at the college's graduation ceremony Saturday.

Students received their degrees after a ceremony and speech by Northern Chancellor Greg Kegel and commencement address by Montana Actors' Theatre Executive Director and award-winning playwright Jay Pyette, who graduated from Northern himself decades ago.

Pyette said there are a lot of important things that happened on May 6 throughout history, good and bad, from the Hindenburg Disaster to Babe Ruth's first major league home run, as well as a lot of famous births, from Sigmung Freud to George Clooney, but for everyone there, this graduation is the most important thing happening May 6.

He said when he was asked to speak here he was excited but worried. He'd done high school graduations before, but wasn't really sure what to do here, he said, and he spent a lot of time staring at a computer screen with nothing happening, a feeling he's certain everyone there can relate to

"'Maybe I can just recycle one of them. Recycling is good, right?' I thought. Then I received a very nice email, from a former student who is also sitting out there with you today. She said, 'I don't know if you realize or remember this. But you were my commencement speaker, 26 years ago at Havre High.' Well, there goes recycling." Pyette said.

He thought back to his own time at Northern, as a student and as someone at MAT, he said, and some of his best life experiences happened on this campus, he said, but when he thought back to his graduation, he doesn't remember all of it, and he has no idea who his commencement speaker was.

But, he said, he realized that it doesn't really matter if today's graduates won't remember everything about this day, or possibly anything about his speech, years from now, but they will have everything they've learned as a culmination of their time at Northern.

"I'm betting that there was something, or more likely someone, that will be an influence through your life," he said. "Perhaps they shared invaluable knowledge and insight. But more likely they just simply influenced your life by the way they conducted theirs."

In thinking back on the things and people that influenced him, he said, there are some standouts, including the last line of the theater's oath he took many years ago.

"'I shall conduct my efforts in such a manner that the theater will stand as a greater institution for my having labored there'.... This can be applied to anything and it should be applied to everything," he said.

Pyette said students should strive to follow that principle no matter what they do. Nursing, teaching, plumbing, whatever they decide to do, he said, make things better than they found them.

He said whether their successes affect the entire world or just a few people, in the end the only judge they will need to answer to is themselves.

Pyette said the playwright Shakespeare provided the world with a lot of relevant and famous quotes that he could use to communicate advice to the graduates, but it's some of the more obscure ones that stand out to him today.

The shepherd Corin in "As You Like It" said "Sir, I am a true laborer; I earn that I eat, get that I wear; owe no man hate, envy no man's happiness; glad of other men's good, content with my harm."

Pyette said Corin was proud of his life even if it was a simple one.

The chatty Venetian merchant Gratiano said, "With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."

Pyette said everyone is going to get old and wrinkled eventually, so spend the time between now and then learning and laughing.

"Have fun in life," he said. "... I'm not saying don't strive for great things. Just make sure you're happy as you do it. And, when you do it, whatever it is, you make sure that it's better because you were there."

Kegel also spoke at the graduation, saying the students there that day accomplished a lot and in a time of unprecedented change and crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said in talking to people about the experience of this graduating class he revisited unpleasant memories of closures and cancellations and isolation, things the graduates experienced just as much as anyone else, but they graduated anyway.

"The class of 2023 is a very special class," he said. " ... It would have been easy for all of you guys to quit and not come back, but you didn't. You finished the job and you did it during one of the hardest times ever."

He said if he has one piece of advice for the students of this class, it is to take whatever got them through this difficult time and hold onto it, and if they do that, they will be successful.

Kegel thanked the various deans, professors and Northern staff members for everything they've done this year as well as everyone who made this graduation ceremony possible.

"These are the educators who, in partnership with family and friends, contributed significantly to the achievements and personal milestones that we will be celebrating today," he said. "Thank you all."

Kegel also thanked this year's retirees, many of whom have devoted over three decades to Northern.

He also welcomed members of the class of 1973 - and earlier - for their Golden Graduation, thanking them for everything they've done and accomplished.

"These graduates are an inspiration to us all," he said. "Together with the faculty and staff of that time, they helped build the foundation that we enjoyed today."