Winter 2025 commencement: Reflections on dreams realized

This past Sunday, UW-Madison held its winter commencement ceremony, conferring degrees to more than 2,100 proud Badgers.

For me, it was a true full-circle moment: Eighteen years ago, I walked across the stage as a UW-Madison engineering graduate. Now, for the first time as dean of our great engineering college, I had the honor of presenting 350 of our newest engineers to the world as they, too, crossed the UW-Madison Kohl Center stage.

I can’t begin to tell you the pride I felt that day. Despite frigid outdoor temperatures, the Kohl Center was packed with graduates, families and friends, and the atmosphere was electric. For me as dean, the ceremony was about more than just celebrating hard work and degrees earned. It was about lives transformed—as UW-Madison did mine.

At UW-Madison, our engineering students aren’t just working toward a degree. They’re stepping into a place where their biggest, boldest ideas can become reality.

Take, for example, the commencement keynote speaker, Grace (Stanke) Vanderhei, Miss America 2023 and UW-Madison nuclear engineering alumna. In her inspiring talk, she challenged our graduates to take chances and to show up—not just for themselves, but for the people who care about them. She reminded all of us, “Don’t just want a village, be a villager, too.”

The student chosen to speak at winter commencement was Jeeva Premkumar, a chemical engineer whose journey took him from Congo to Kenya to India to Wisconsin. He reflected a story not unlike my own: Arriving here unsure, just one person in a very large university, battling imposter syndrome, working to find friends … and then discovering that the warmth of this community can make even a cold first semester feel like home away from home. He also reminded us that growth happens at the edge of discomfort.

That’s a message I hope to convey to our present and future students. Moving away from home and going to college comes with a few unknowns. But it’s also a new beginning. Here, in our engineering college and on our campus, you will find people who care about you, who will build you up, who will support you through challenges and in triumphs, who will become your family.

On Sunday, as our engineering graduates began their procession across the Kohl Center stage, Jeeva, fittingly, was the first graduate to whom I awarded a diploma.

I’m so grateful to UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, interim Provost John Zumbrunnen and to the faculty and staff who made this day so meaningful.

And to our newest alumni, I want you to know you are ready to lead, and to carry forward the Wisconsin Idea as Grace powerfully demonstrated in her talk. Badger Engineers: The world needs your courage, talent and willingness to show up—now more than ever.

On, Wisconsin!