PROVO, Utah — As Elder Gerrit W. Gong approached the lectern situated at the base of the Marriott Center to address this year’s graduates of Brigham Young University, the Apostle turned in a 360-degree circle so he could “see the whole group.”
The Thursday, April 25, commencement ceremony, which took place on a mild, spring morning in Provo, Utah, recognized the nearly 7,000 graduates who — along with their friends, family and mentors — filled the 19,000-seat stadium to the topmost rows.
A commencement can be a spiritual benchmark, an invitation both to look back in gratitude and to look forward in anticipation and exploration, Elder Gong noted.
As a BYU alumnus, Elder Gong reflected back on his own time at BYU and shared three experiences from his freshman year that have invited him to become his “best BYU gospel self” — an invitation he extended to graduates.
Elder D. Todd Christofferson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and chairman of the executive committee of the board of trustees, presided at the commencement.
In 2022, Elder Christofferson was hosted by Prof. Dr. Vishwanath D. Karad, the founder and president of World Peace University, for the unveiling of a 15-foot-tall bronze statue of the Prophet Joseph Smith at the World Peace Dome in Pune, India. During Thursday’s ceremony, Karad was bestowed an honorary doctorate of educational and international leadership by BYU.
“My dear friends, it is perhaps destined that MIT World Peace University; Pune, India; and Brigham Young University, Utah, U.S.A., have come together with a common goal of establishing culture of peace in the world,” Karad said in accepting his degree.
BYU President C. Shane Reese both conducted the proceedings and offered a brief address. Elder Christofferson’s wife, Sister Kathy Christofferson; Elder Clark G. Gilbert, General Authority Seventy and Church commissioner of education, and his wife, Sister Christine Gilbert; and Sister Wendy Reese, the first lady of BYU, were also in attendance.
BYU conferred 7,198 degrees during the April graduation — 283 doctoral degrees, 1,095 masters degrees and 5,820 bachelor’s degrees.
Elder Gong’s freshman experiences
The first freshman experience Elder Gong shared was being invited, even though he was inexperienced in madrigal singing, to join a madrigal group.
“As I think across the years, I wonder if the opening of a circle to include a new freshman — who never before or since has been invited to join any singing group — has made me want to make every circle bigger, more inclusive, more welcoming. For me, building a community of covenant belonging was real at BYU,” he said.
Next, as young Elder Gong and some friends were preparing for a camping trip, he was asked to pick up a box of copies of the Book of Mormon from the BYU Bookstore to share with people they met on the trip.
“For me, courage and confidence to be true, even different when necessary, was something nurtured here at BYU,” Elder Gong said.
The third freshman experience Elder Gong shared was the mentorship of Dr. Arthur Henry King, a BYU professor, adult convert to the Church and world expert on Shakespeare and rhetoric.
“Professor King and many other devoted BYU faculty showed by experience and example how academic excellence and open, authentic faith are complementary and can ‘bathe us in the light and color of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.’ Life lessons in avoiding false dichotomies, in harnessing spirit and intellect so that they can go together, bless me to this day,” Elder Gong said.
Becoming ‘your best BYU self’
With that in mind, Elder Gong shared his hope and invitation that graduates would both distill with love and gratitude the best of their own BYU experiences and that they would continue to become their “truest, happiest, freest, most authentic gospel self — in other words, your best BYU self.”
Said Elder Gong: “Please let this BYU commencement be a personal invitation to you to become on a personal level what President C. Shane Reese has invited BYU as a whole to become. On a personal level, ‘becoming BYU’ invites us to become our truest, best BYU self in lifelong faith, service and discipleship.”
Graduates become their best BYU self as they live their double heritage — speaking both the language of their disciplines, professions and training, and the language of faith as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Graduates also become their best BYU self as they build faith-filled communities of covenant belonging, serve and focus on that which does not change — “who we are spiritually (spiritual identity), whose we are (covenant belonging) and how we use our God-given agency to continue discovering and becoming our best BYU self.”
In conclusion, Elder Gong told graduates, “May you preserve the best of your BYU experiences in your heart with gratitude and appreciation. May you fill your life’s journey with a covenant and sacramental life deepened in meaning and enriched by your capacity and desire to serve and bless with a fulness of joy.”
‘Without. Which. Not’
In welcoming graduates, their friends and family, faculty, staff, administrators and honored guests, President Reese utilized a Latin phrase: “sine qua non,” which means “Without. Which. Not.”
President Reese told those gathered to honor the thousands of graduates, “You are the people without which today would not be possible. Today is about honoring our graduates, but it is also about honoring you.”
With some tears and many smiles, graduates then stood to applaud those in the “sin qua non” section of the Marriott Center.
“Graduates of 2024, your eternal journey of becoming, commences today. Follow Jesus. Honor your covenants. Align your life with the teachings of living prophets. Become the ‘sine qua non’ in others’ lives,” President Reese encouraged.
Thursday’s ceremony also included remarks by graduate Macy Rebecca West and BYU alumni president Hillary Nielsen. The BYU Chamber Orchestra provided a musical number, “A Child’s Prayer.”
Correction: A previous version of this article included a wrong date for the unveiling of the statue at the World Peace Dome in India. It occurred in 2022.
