Rick Wagoner tells VCU graduates they are prepared to thrive in an ‘exciting new future’

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At Virginia Commonwealth University's commencement ceremony today, Rick Wagoner, former CEO of General Motors, told the university's newest graduates that the world has entered an era of "head-spinning" change that will bring fresh challenges and a wealth of opportunities.

As VCU graduates, he said, they will have an advantage over graduates from many other schools in navigating the evolving landscape.

"VCU didn't just give you an education. It gave you real-world awareness and resilience," said Wagoner, who with his wife, Kathy, received the Edward A. Wayne Medal at the ceremony for outstanding contributions to VCU. "In this era of rapid change, the world you are entering is a lot like your experience at VCU: always busy, sometimes unpredictable, with frequent small or maybe even big changes from time to time. So, as a VCU graduate, you have been trained to thrive in this changing world. You are very well prepared to engage in, and indeed lead, in this exciting new future that is upon us."

The ceremony, which was held at the Greater Richmond Convention Center, honored VCU's more than 5,100 spring graduates, including approximately 3,300 earning undergraduate degrees. Approximately 1,000 graduates earned master's degrees, more than 330 earned first-professional degrees and nearly 300 completed doctoral degrees. The students represent 35 states (including Washington, D.C.) and 41 countries. The university also hosts an assortment of in-person graduation ceremonies at the department, school and college levels. (Read more on the numbers behind commencement this year.)

At the ceremony, President Michael Rao, Ph.D., said VCU has helped to shape graduates with "a unique brand of critical thinking that cannot be found anywhere else."

"We have tried not to give you a script to follow," Rao said. "What we tried to do is give you the independence to write your own story. Whether it was in our classrooms, our labs, our clinics or even our streets, you have learned to look at the most vexing problems of our time as invitations. … You have learned that being uncommon is an obligation to think for yourself."

Kathy and Rick Wagoner earned the Edward A. Wayne Medal as staunch supporters of the university. That includes taking on leadership roles on two fundraising campaigns - the Make It Real Campaign for VCU that ended in 2020 and the Unlocking Potential campaign that is currently underway - and creating the Wagoner Family Endowed Scholarship in the School of Business. More recently, they made a commitment to the new Institute for Free Enterprise at VCU. Rick also served two terms on the VCU Board of Visitors.

In addition, Sameen Hossain, a rising junior and Honors College student majoring in bioinformatics in the School of Life Sciences and Sustainability in the College of Humanities and Sciences, received the Board of Visitors Award, which recognizes the achievements of outstanding undergraduate students who represent the distinctive attributes of a VCU student. The recipients receive a one-year scholarship in the amount equal to in-state tuition and fees.