Program

Dear Toro Graduates,

One of our nation’s Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, reminds us that “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Today, that investment reaches fruition, as the investment in your academic career earns you a marker of your achievements, one that will significantly enhance your options in life and elevate your trajectory towards future success.

On behalf of the faculty, staff, senior administration, your fellow students, and our alumni of California State University, Dominguez Hills, I extend congratulations to the Class of 2024, who have spent the last several years preparing to take ownership of their own futures – and those of the communities they hail from.

Commencement is a time for celebration and jubilation, a time of retrospective reflection and anticipatory excitement. It is a time to appreciate the road you have traveled, and the purpose and journey that has brought you here. Portions of your journey may have been easier than expected, or it may have been rocky, but you kept your eyes on the prize, and have grown intellectually, emotionally, socially, and maybe even spiritually during your time on our beautiful campus.

Today, you arrive at CSUDH’s Commencement Ceremony having earned and prepared to accept a college degree for which you have been recommend by your faculty and realized a goal that you have worked diligently towards. It is a cause for much joy and exuberance, and the entire university community joins me in celebrating your hard-earned success.

Your pathway towards graduation has been influenced by many who have been involved in your lives and played critical roles in education and achievement. Today is also an opportunity to recognize and applaud your families, friends, significant others, faculty, advisors, and mentors who have supported, encouraged, motivated, taught, and inspired you to persist and to succeed.

As members of the Class of 2024, you join a vibrant and growing group of over 116,000 Dominguez Hills alumni who are transforming communities throughout California, the nation, and the world. Whether you plan to progress directly into a career, or to attain further education at the graduate or professional school level, I encourage you to join the alumni association and stay connected and engaged with your CSUDH. Our Toro community is strengthened by your continued involvement and engagement.

Again, congratulations to the Class of 2024. Once a Toro, Always a Toro!

Thomas A. Parham, Ph.D.
President, California State University, Dominguez Hills

Dear Class of 2024:

Please accept my warmest and most heartfelt congratulations on achieving a truly momentous goal in your life. Just a few short years ago, you set your sights on earning a degree. Now, that goal is a reality. I hope you feel a well-earned sense of pride. 

Even as numerous forces upended our world, you held firmly onto your dreams and persisted in your studies through challenges none of us could have foreseen or imagined. By necessity, you have developed and honed attributes that will benefit you for a lifetime. Your resilience and adaptability will become career strengths. Your creativity and resourcefulness will define you. Your courage and determination are, in my eyes, already legendary.

Moving forward, you will face new opportunities with the potential for great success. I am sure that you will excel because you have the knowledge, skills and connections gained through your California State University education.

Your personal and educational transformation was aided by faculty, who trained you to look at the world with a critical eye and an open mind. Their efforts were supported by the work of your counselors, advisors, librarians, tutors and coaches who created an encouraging environment for you to succeed. All the while, your family, friends, colleagues and loved ones kept you motivated and saw you through your academic journey.

Your accomplishment today fills all of them – all of us – with pride.

You are now part of a network of over four million CSU alumni who are powering the social and economic prosperity of our state – and far beyond. You join fellow alumni who are solving our greatest challenges, educating the next generation, fighting for equality, and creating new opportunities for economic prosperity.

I encourage you to stay connected to the CSU. Use these connections – both to your university and to other CSU alumni – to expand your opportunities and make a meaningful impact on your community and the world. I also encourage you to support the generations who endeavor to follow in your footsteps.

The word we use to commemorate an earned university degree is “commencement.” This is, of course, deliberate. Today is not an end, but rather a beginning. And as you continue on your life’s journey, may your hard work and sacrifices pay dividends far beyond today’s celebration, both in your life and in the lives of those around you.

Congratulations, California State University Class of 2024! I look forward to all that you will accomplish.

Felicidades!

Mildred García, Ed.D.
Chancellor, California State University