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PROVO — The 2023-24 BYU school year began with new president Shane Reese declaring that the university's challenge during his administration would be "to become the BYU of prophecy and promise," at the same time a great institution of learning and "an anointed university of the Lord."
On Thursday, the school year culminated in commencement exercises for 7,198 graduates, who were invited to become their "best BYU gospel self" by Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"On a personal level, becoming BYU invites us to become our truest, best BYU self in lifelong faith, service and discipleship," he said.
Reese conferred the degrees in the Marriott Center, which was packed with a typically boisterous crowd of graduates, families and friends. Reese and Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve also conferred an honorary degree on Vishwanath D. Karad, an educator and founder of the World Peace Center in India.
Elder Gong invited the graduates to distill their "best BYU experiences in a forward-leaning, forward-learning, anticipatory way" to bless others. He also called commencement a spiritual benchmark that invites graduates to look back in gratitude and forward in anticipation and exploration.
He encouraged them to learn lessons from their BYU experiences and apply them to encourage and bless those around them, wherever they go next.
A BYU graduate himself, Elder Gong said that as a student he learned from others the value of making every circle of people more inclusive and welcoming.
One of his two hopes and invitations for the graduates was to pass forward the testimony blessings they received as they grew spiritually and were enlarged intellectually.
"Think how you have developed in character and commitment to lifelong learning and service," he said.
The second was "that you will continue to become your truest, happiest, freest gospel self — in other words, your best BYU self," he said.
Elder Gong, who previously served in a past BYU president's cabinet, said becoming one's best BYU self includes:
- Living forward a double heritage, the bilingual ability to speak fluently both the language of a discipline or profession and the language of faith as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
- Being unified in Jesus Christ and building faith-filled communities of covenant belonging.
- Being open, inviting and supportive "so there are no foreigners or strangers in our household of faith or in our neighborhood or community."
"In our often noisy, cluttered, unsettled world, please continue to focus on that which does not change — who we are spiritually (spiritual identity), whose we are (covenant belonging), and how we use our God-given agency to continue discovering and becoming our best BYU self," Elder Gong said.
The best chapters in the graduates' lives are waiting to be written, he said.
"Fill them with meaningful service and contribution, serendipitous delight and spontaneous joy. Build covenant communion with God and covenant community with your family and those around you," Elder Gong said.
Reese said BYU is an outlier in the modern higher education landscape because "we proudly and energetically embrace our charge from prophets and apostles to dare to be different and to 'become the BYU of prophecy.'"
"Our students and programs consistently rank among the most competitive in the nation," he said. "But at BYU we are more concerned about the measurements of heaven than the metrics of the world."
He told the graduates they are only just commencing an eternal curriculum.
"Today's graduates embody BYU's mission to forge students who choose daily discipleship, honor divine covenants and strive to serve wherever they are," he said.
Reese also congratulated about two dozen Army and Air Force ROTC graduates who were to be commissioned as officers in a separate, afternoon ceremony. He choked up talking about attending that ceremony last year, and the graduates and their families gave the cadets a standing ovation when the president said, "Please join me in congratulating those who dedicate their services to defend our country."
He also shared the story of Andy Reid, the Super Bowl-winning coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, who came to BYU with a friend, joined the Church of Jesus Christ and encourages others to lean on their faith.
"It's also a classic BYU story — a story of becoming," Reese said, "a story full of triumphs and trials, highs and lows, marked by daily decisions to choose Christian discipleship and the courage to embrace a fully integrated life — a life in which religious convictions and professional pursuits are harmonized, not compartmentalized."
As a member of the BYU board of trustees, Elder Christofferson joined Reese in conferring the honorary BYU degree on Karad, an engineer and scientist who founded the Maharashtra Institute of Technology in Pune, India, where he also established a World Peace Center.
In August 2017, Karad recognized the work of the Church of Jesus Christ by conferring the Philosopher Saint Shri Dnyaneshwara World Peace Prize on Elder Christofferson as a church representative. The World Peace Prize, modeled on the Nobel Peace Prize, was established in 2006 at MIT-World Peace University and has been awarded on nine occasions to date.
In November 2022, Karad hosted Elder Christofferson and a church delegation at a ceremony to unveil a statue of the Prophet Joseph Smith at the World Peace Dome in Pune.
"I personally believe that Prophet Joseph Smith epitomized everything that is noble in human beings," Karad told the graduates. "He faced great odds and torment in his life so that an era of love, compassion, understanding and brotherhood could be established in (what was then) a terribly violent society. Prophet Smith said that the best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask from books, but to go to God in prayer."
Karad said he seeks to work with universities like BYU that combine secular and spiritual learning because he believes values-based education and interreligious harmony is key to building a global culture of peace.
"Every living being is a manifestion of Almighty God and should be treated with love and respect at all times," said Karad, quoting the Philosopher-Saint Shri Tukarama.
Of the 7,198 graduates:
- 5,820 earned bachelor's degrees;
- 1,095 received masters degrees;
- 283 completed doctoral degrees;
The graduates represented all 50 states and 70 foreign countries, and 52% were female and 48% male.
Elder Clark G. Gilbert, commissioner of Church Education, also attended the commencement exercises.
