Former N.C. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mandy Cohen encouraged Guilford College graduates and their families to help build more trust to strengthen society in remarks at the College’s first outdoor Commencement ceremony in four years Saturday.

Mandy, who helped lead the state’s COVID response and received an honorary doctorate from the College during the ceremony, spoke of trust being “an essential ingredient” whether in dealing with a pandemic or in students’ personal and professional lives.

She suggested North Carolina had a more effective response to COVID than other states because its leaders instilled trust, not fear, in citizens. People can be scared into changing, she said, but fear will only go so far. 

“Trust is the foundation of all relationships, both personal and professional,” she said. “I truly believe change happens at the pace of trust. If you want to make change in this world through your professional endeavors – making the world safer, more just, more equitable, more beautiful, more resilient, or healthier – you will need to think intentionally about trust.”

“We saw that exact scenario play out with COVID,” she said. “We had decent national cohesion and action in our response to COVID at the beginning of the pandemic – that was when we knew the least and fear was at its highest. But it was those states or communities that were able to maintain trust that saw the best longer term results.”

Check out some of our favorite images from the Class of 2023 Commencement. 

To the graduates, she offered, “Your education at Guilford College has equipped you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to make a positive impact on the world.  If you take what you have gained at Guilford College and focus intentionally on trust  – I know you will make positive change in the world. I trust you.”

Mandy was scheduled to speak at Guilford’s commencement last year before a bout with COVID prevented her from attending.

Guilford presented bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Commencement to about 250 students, including Larry McMillian ’23 of Greensboro, a Cyber and Network Security major who will work with the National Security Agency as a computer programmer after graduation.

Speaking for the graduating class, Larry recounted the challenges the pandemic wrought – masks, distance learning, six feet – and the perseverance his classmates showed their four years at Guilford.

“We watched our college experience fall apart piece by piece, one thing after another,” he said. “But we didn’t accept that. We got back up and rebuilt our campus into the thriving, lively place that we witnessed when we got here four years ago. Throughout all of the adversity we kept pushing to be the best that we could be. We refused to stay down. Refused to be beaten. Refused to accept defeat. We earned every bit of these degrees and deserve to be happy and enjoy this moment.”

President Kyle Farmbry, presiding over his second Commencement at Guilford, challenged graduates to share their gifts for the betterment of the world.

Speaking on a shady stage looking out over the quadrangle lawn, Kyle thought back to his graduation 31 years ago and asked graduates to “create ripples of hope” after leaving Guilford.

“I think about all of the issues of concern when I graduated in the early 1990s: rising xenophobia, increasing rates of poverty, concerns of global warming and environmental sustainability and I think about some of the optimism that my classmates and I had. We were going to go out and fix all of these issues, and then fix a whole lot more,” he said, noting that many of those issues have not been resolved

“I sometimes think that the ripples my generation of graduates created were not big enough or creative enough to create the world that we wanted you to experience. I realize that there is much work that the graduates of the 1990s still have to do, but I am thrilled that we now have the graduates of the early 2020s as collaborators, and willing partners to continue to build those ripples. I’m excited that you, members of Guilford College’s class of 2023 will be with us to continue to build those waves and make this world a much better place for all.”

Saturday’s commencement marked the ceremony’s return to its traditional home on the lawn outside Founders Hall for the first time since 2019. The pandemic forced the 2020 and 2021 commencements to be held virtually and last year’s ceremony was held in Ragan-Brown Field House because of rain.

Student Body President Tinyah Ervin ’23 and Guilford football coach Brad Davis ‘08 presented an honorary bachelor’s degree to the family of Ahmad Brewington ’23, who tragically died in an accident last year. Members of the graduating class petitioned for the recognition of their classmate.

Aileen Cerda '23 of Greensboro had a mix of emotions Saturday. She was proud to be graduating with a degree in Political Science and is looking forward to law school, but admitted she'll miss Guilford. "This place is such a great source of community," she said. "My best memories of Guilford are the amazing friends I made through that community. Now were all moving on but I know those friendships will always be there." 

Mark Edwards ’90 was the alumni speaker and a proud dad of a graduate. Father of Avery Edwards ’23, a Religious Studies and Sociology/Anthropology major, he urged graduates to “continue to nurture and grow the relationships that you made here. These are people that will be dear to you for the rest of your life … their value will only grow as the years go by.”