MADISON, Wis. — A total of 9,424 students received degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on May 9-10, including Gabrianna Salo, of Escanaba, who graduated from the School of Education with a Master of Science-Sports Leadership, Sports Leadership.

There were two live Spring 2025 Commencement ceremonies, one for undergraduates at Camp Randall and one for all graduate degree candidates at the Kohl Center.

Keynote speaker and celebrated sports columnist Jason Gay encouraged the graduates to embrace joy in their lives.

“Spend your time with people who give you happiness. Stay as open to new experiences as you are today,” Gay said. “Find satisfaction in small routines – the place where you live, community service, time outside in the natural world.”

Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin reminded graduates that an essential part of their UW-Madison education has been learning to find ways to connect, not disconnect, and to engage, not disengage. And to do that even when they disagreed – to move beyond bubbles and echo chambers.

“And that’s important,” Mnookin said. “You are stepping into a world that is both deeply complex and distressingly polarized, and you have the power to do something good in that world, especially if you can find ways to work with people you might not always agree with.”

Senior class president Sam Mahlum, who served as the event’s student speaker, said one of the things she and her fellow graduates learned at UW was the value of time, including the time it takes to climb Bascom Hill.

“We wish for more time to get assignments completed, to study for the next exam, to hang out with friends or to just stay here, in this special place in our lives, before we have to go out there and be whatever it is we have been working so hard to become,” she said.

For more information about UW-Madison, visit www.wisc.edu.