Loyola University Maryland celebrated the Class of 2024 at the University’s 171st Commencement Exercises during a ceremony at the CFG Bank Arena in downtown Baltimore on Saturday, May 18, 2024. Approximately 1,200 students walked across the stage to mark the completion of their bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees during the ceremony.
The Commencement speaker, D. Paul Monteiro, J.D., received a doctor of humane letters, honoris causa, from Loyola. Monteiro is Maryland’s first secretary of service and civic innovation and leads the governor’s efforts to promote service and volunteerism in the state.
“Service is a contact sport in the Ignatian tradition that this university represents,” Monteiro said. “I hope you begin to think in terms of what your mission will be.”
Maddie Kammholz, ’24, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and information systems, addressed her classmates during the ceremony.
“Through the immense love I have experienced during my time at Loyola, I cultivated a belief that there is a world bigger than myself, subsequently, a world bigger than ourselves, just beyond those doors. Let us do our part in setting that world on fire, doing our individual parts as one small soul living on our great big earth,” Kammholz said. “In having the opportunity to receive a Jesuit education, we have been equipped with skill sets that will not only aid our future professions, but our personal lives as well.”
Terrence M. Sawyer, J.D., president of Loyola, offered the Class of 2024 words of encouragement and wisdom as graduates prepared to embark on the next chapter of their lives.
“As you complete this chapter and begin the next, my wish for you is of course that you will be successful, but what I hope for you even more is that you will live a life of significance. That is when you use your gifts, your Jesuit education, to make others successful. And that is how you live a life full of purpose, a life full of meaning, and when you have those things, you’ll be happier, and you’ll be living the purposeful life that Loyola has prepared you for,” Sawyer said.
Also at the Commencement Exercises, awards were received by Jasmine Jenkins, Ph.D., ’06, who received the Carroll Medal; Trustee Walter B. Doggett III, who received the Newman Medal; and CASH Campaign of Maryland, which received the Milch Community Partnership Award.