USC celebrates the class of 2019

On May 10, more than 60,000 members of the Trojan Family gathered at USC’s University Park campus to celebrate this year’s graduates at the university’s 136th Commencement ceremony.

USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences conferred 2,658 undergraduate and graduate degrees, including 202 Ph.D.s who were recognized at a Ph.D. Hooding Ceremony on May 9.

Friday’s ceremony began at Alumni Memorial Park with USC Interim President Wanda Austin presiding. Alumna Karen Bass, U.S. Representative and Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the first African-American woman to serve as leader of a state legislative body, delivered the university commencement address. Bass, Arthur C. Bartner, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Edythe Broad, Eli Broad, Emery Brown and Cindy Hensley McCain all received honorary degrees. Individual school ceremonies followed the main ceremony.

Best-selling novelist, psychologist and USC Dornsife alumnus Jonathan Kellerman delivered the Commencement address at USC Dornsife’s satellite ceremonies.

He told students that although he may have written 50 books that have been published, what he would like them to know is that the first nine books that he wrote did not get published.

Meaningful success takes time, he said, and no one is entitled to it. “Find something you like and work really, really hard. Show up on time. Do your best. Maintain a good attitude. Don’t expect to get anything you don’t earn.”

Kellerman concluded with a piece of advice he gleaned from his years as a psychology researcher: Be nice.

“Nice people generally don’t finish last,” he said. “They finish happiest.”

You can watch the live stream of USC Dornsife’s Commencement ceremonies and Ph.D. Hooding ceremony online.

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Visit USC Dornsife’s website to read more Commencement coverage and student profiles >>

USC Dornsife Commencement on flickr