Photos Courtesy of SUNY Fredonia Above, SUNY Fredonia graduates wave to family members before getting their diplomas Saturday at SUNY Fredonia’s 191st graduation ceremony. Below, student Connor March walks with diploma in his left hand.

Some do it in 1,460 days, while others take a quicker or slower route. Some start when they are about 18, while others may start when they’re 58.

However the more than 1,300 students did it, they all graduated the State University of New York at Fredonia and earned their respective degree through hard work and determined effort.

The 2018 Commencement for the graduating class took place at Steele Hall on Saturday at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. as family, friends and loved ones sat in the gymnasium waiting for the honorary handshake and the official receiving of their diploma.

A moment that surpasses the difficult times, the long path or the debt accrued along the way.

In both the morning and afternoon ceremonies, SUNY Fredonia President Virginia Horvath, Ph.D. did the introduction with Frank Pagano, the chair of the college’s council following her with his own speech.Pagano, who said this was his 13th time addressing soon-to-be graduates, was comical to keep the event lively on the eager day of college students entering the workforce or further educating themselves.

In the past year, Pagano stated he was approached by an alumnus of SUNY Fredonia and that alumnus said his speech was a great motivator for him. Though Pagano didn’t remember what he said a decade ago when the graduate left the university.

“Can you please refresh my memory? What did I say that inspired you so much?” he asked. “At that moment, the alumnus looked me square in the eye and said, ‘I tried to live my life by these words.’ He said he shook my hand and I said to him, ‘Keep moving’ (as he waved him to continue as there is a line behind him).”

Keep moving. Though these words have a different context in that anecdote, they were the theme to those students who may face hard times post-Fredonia.

Senior Class President Veronica A. Arce, who graduated with a bachelors in English, Summa Cum Laude, gave her speech to the class she represented. Arce focused on persistence and taking in the world during her speech.

She capped it off with a memorable statement of a famous man who died recently.

“I am going to read a quote by Stephen Hawking,” Arce began, “‘I am going to share my extended enthusiasm about this quest. So remember to look at the stars then down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and what makes the universe exist. Be curious and however difficult life may seem, there’s always something you can do to supercede that. It matters that you don’t give up; when there’s life, there’s hope.’ To the Class of 2018, congratulations, you did it.”

The Commencement Address was given by Michael A. Marletta, Ph.D., who graduated SUNY Fredonia in the Class of 1973. He earned a chemistry and a biology degrees from Fredonia and later, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of California-San Francisco in pharmaceutical chemistry.

In the afternoon ceremony, Marletta was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science Degree from SUNY Fredonia; the morning ceremony saw Nicholas W. Hlifka receive the Lanford Presidential Prize as he graduated with a bachelors in philosophy.

Marletta had an agenda to keep the Class of 2018 focused on giving their all and giving to others. He said his mother told him near her final words, “Do something good and make the world a better place.”

Marletta continued with many ideologies with one asking yourself how you better this world for everyone.

“Life’s most persistent, emerging question is: What are you doing for others? For optimism, let me return to 1968,” he said. “It was a year of so much to be sad about. Yet, that year came to an end with a stunning example of what we can do, what we as the United States can do, when we put minds and our goals together.

“On Dec. 24, the astronauts at Apollo 8 circled the moon for the first time. They took a stunning photo of Earth Rise. … We can do it … and more importantly, you can do it and we desperately need you to take you education and put it to work.”

After his commencement, students rose out of their seats to no longer be the ones running to a classroom to getting that final 8×10 paper with their name on it.

“We’re counting on you to use all you have learned to continue to learn as new questions, challenges and technologies arise,” President Horvath said, “and to represent your alma mater proudly in all you do.”