Camp Randall commencement: Sports stars. Happy tears. And so much joy.

It made perfect sense Saturday that Jason Gay, one of the most celebrated sports columnists in the country, would be a little starstruck in the presence of one of the winningest women’s hockey teams in NCAA history.

Gay, the keynote speaker for UW–Madison’s Spring 2025 Commencement at Camp Randall Stadium, introduced eight graduating members of the team after recounting their thrilling, come-from-behind win this past March to capture their eighth national championship, the most of any program in the country.

Sports, Gay acknowledged, can be overvalued at times. But athletic competitions also produce a very specific, emphatic brand of human joy.

“I feel that way every time I see an athlete achieve a dream,” Gay told the graduates. “Joy is important. As you go through life, do not deprive yourself of the experience of joy. Spend your time with people who give you happiness. Stay as open to new experiences as you are today. Find satisfaction in small routines — the place where you live, community service, time outside in the natural world.”  

A Terrace-perfect day

Joy dominated the Camp Randall ceremony, with a crowd, including graduates, estimated at just over 48,000. It was sunny and 72 degrees, one of those Terrace-perfect days Madison routinely churns out — the kind that will make it heartbreakingly difficult for graduates to leave the city.

Many of those in the stands came from far away to see loved ones graduate, like Rawisara Chongphaisal’s parents. They traveled 24 hours from Bangkok, Thailand. Chongphaisal decorated her mortarboard with “Ur fav pastry just graduated.” (Her nickname since birth has been “Èclair,” her father’s go-to sweet treat.)

The Camp Randall ceremony was part of a weekend of commencement festivities. In total,  an estimated 9,424 students earned degrees. Friday evening at the Kohl Center, diplomas were conferred to doctoral, MFA and medical professional degree candidates. Saturday’s ceremony celebrated bachelor’s, master’s and law degree candidates.

Watch the speeches by Chancellor Mnookin, keynote speaker Jason Gay and student speaker Sam Mahlum.

Connection and engagement

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.”

Mnookin recognized graduate Zack Dulian, who spent his senior year helping to lead the Bridging the Divide initiative, a pluralism effort sponsored by the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership. Mnookin also gave shout-outs to Shiann Her, who brought her unique perspective as a Hmong woman to her work as president of the Financial Occupations Club for University Students,and Micky Singh, who brought different life experiences to the Law School as a member of the Wisconsin Army Reserves and the son of Punjabi Sikh immigrants.

“Whatever issue you care about, whatever your perspective, speak up,” Mnookin concluded. “Fight fiercely for what you believe in! But don’t shut people out who may see the world differently. Instead, embrace the pluralism around you and see what happens when you welcome others in with curiosity before judgment.”

‘This special place’

Senior class president Sam Mahlum, who served as Saturday’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.

Many students said their UW years transformed them. They discovered new pursuits, learned how to live on their own, matured by leaps and bounds.

“It feels like forever ago that I was in high school,” said Sam Roslansky, of Chanhassen, Minnesota, who earned a bachelor’s degree Saturday in mechanical engineering.

He’s heading to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a job as a launch operations engineer with Relativity Space Inc., an aerospace manufacturing company. He spent much of his time at UW participating on several teams connected to the Society of Automotive Engineers, sometimes spending 12-14 hours a day in an engineering lab.

“The hands-on experience I gained from being on those teams definitely led to more job opportunities,” he said.

Choose optimism

Since 2009, Gay has been a sports and culture columnist for the Wall Street Journal. (“It’s like Barstool, for your grandparents,” he told graduates.) Gay was named Sports Columnist of the Year by the Society of Professional Journalists in 2010, 2016 and 2019, and in 2024 by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. He is the author of the 2015 bestseller “Little Victories,” which was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor.

Gay graduated from UW–Madison in 1992, earning a bachelor’s degree in political science. He loves his alma mater, as evidenced by columns like “Badgers Must Beat Michigan to Save the World.” He’s currently a Badger uncle — his niece is a junior. (“I was thrilled she picked UW and even more thrilled that she loves it,” Gay says.)

He encouraged graduates to choose to be an optimist among the pessimists, a fixer instead of a complainer.

“You can give energy to the people around you, rather than take it away,” he said. “And you can listen. That alone is a life with great purpose — to be someone who listens.”

“I know this is high-minded talk from a man who writes about people who run around in shorts,” he added.

A chance to begin again 

For some students, Saturday signified the start of a new life.

“I have a future now. I didn’t before,” said Keerun Ismail, 39, of Madison, who earned a bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies.

A first-generation college student, Ismail said lingering trauma from childhood abuse and neglect left her unable to see a path forward for many years. The university’s Badger Ready program, which helps nontraditional transfer students facing barriers to admission, provided an opportunity to reclaim her strength and rewrite her story.

“This is a very emotional day for me, and I feel so much gratitude toward UW and the School of Human Ecology,” said Ismail, who plans to pursue a master’s degree in human ecology.

Surina Martinez welcomed 11 family members to Camp Randall from her hometown of Los Angeles — eight had never been to Wisconsin. A first-generation college student, Martinez double majored in health promotion health equity and Chican@ & Latin@ studies.

“I’ve learned so much about myself here — about my passions, my identity, my culture,” she said. “I’m more sure of who I am now than when I came into college.”

Even before Saturday’s ceremony began, she’d been through a roller coaster of emotions.

“I’ve already cried so many good tears,” she said.