Class of 2017 graduates and remembers

Spotted among graduates on the field of Kenan Stadium for Mother’s Day: An Australian flag, an inflatable flamingo, a Michael Jordan jersey and an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. 

The University's Spring 2017 Commencement ceremony was May 14, with 6,028 degree candidates turning their tassels. In addition, three honorary degrees were conferred to Fred Eshelman, Patricia Hororo and Thomas Forrest Kelly. 

"As each of us left home this morning to make the trek to Kenan Stadium, we did so with a mixed bag of emotions," Senior Class President Elizabeth Grady said. "Some of us excited, some of us anxious, some of us feeling downright ill. Why? Because we knew this time would be different."

The Class of 2017 joined the ranks of UNC's 317,000 living alumni, several of which were present at Sunday's ceremony. The Class of 1967 walked with the graduates as a part of their 50th graduation anniversary, accompanied by classic songs such as, "Respect" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough."

But the 1967 alumni weren't the only ones feeling nostalgic. Chancellor Carol Folt got emotional towards the end of the ceremony, noting that the Class of 2017 was the first she had seen all the way through in her tenure as chancellor.

"Eleanor Roosevelt once said that true friends will leave footprints in your heart," Folt said. “True Carolina friends leave heel prints in your heart. But I have to tell you, you have left heel prints in my heart. And I’m so grateful to you."

Folt went on to mention the stories that had defined the Class of 2017's time at UNC — the National Championship in men's basketball, the tragedy of the Chapel Hill shooting, the triumph of Aziz Sancar's Nobel Prize win, the ambitious goals and research breakthroughs of Carolina faculty.

"Over the past four years, we have had so much fun while also facing some big challenges. We have certainly taken selfies everywhere," Folt said, referencing her tendency towards phone photo ops.

Also feeling nostalgic was commencement speaker Brooke Baldwin, who described her speech as a "bucket list opportunity."

"Carol came into my office in New York like in August just to hang out and meet me, and we were talking about something totally separate," she said.

"I sort of planted the seed — ‘You know, if you ever need a commencement speaker in the future.’ And I thought it would be years from now. She told me last night that she basically left my office, grabbed her colleague and said, ‘We need to lock her down.'"

Baldwin, a 2001 UNC alumna who now works as a news anchor at CNN, delivered an address that spanned the beginnings of her career as a "one-woman newsroom" in a tiny television market, the lessons she learned at stations in West Virginia and Washington, D.C. and her move back to her parents' house as an often-unpaid CNN freelancer, where she waited to be picked up full-time for two and a half years.

"In April 2010, I was in Gulfport, Mississippi, covering that massive oil spill when my phone rang," Baldwin said. "It was my boss telling me that CNN wanted to offer me a full-time job as a correspondent: the real deal. The last time I felt that profound sense of belonging was when I was here."

She then discussed the highs and lows of her time as an anchor: being parodied by Saturday Night Live, earning a mention from Barack Obama at the White House Correspondents Dinner, covering the Boston Marathon bombings and apologizing for an on-air comment about veterans.

"Class of 2017, you are going to make mistakes. The key is acknowledging them and then recovering from them with grace and humility," she said.

After Baldwin's speech and Folt's conferring of the degrees, after the turning of the tassels and the tossing of the hats, the graduates milled about the field and met with family and friends. The May sun beat down as they created this: their final memory of their time at UNC.

"I made a family here," graduate Akil Guruparan said. "It’s good to leave with those memories. The ceremony did press on me that I’m joining something really big by graduating from Carolina, so that’s what I’m taking away from it."

@notracheljones