Ken Kraft/for the Gazette MTU Graduate Quinn Riordan gives the commencement speech Saturday.

HOUGHTON – The campus of Michigan Technological University was covered in snow, but more than 300 undergraduate students blazed a trail Saturday and for some it was multiple years in the making. The University held its Midyear Commencement Saturday, and the varsity gym The Varsity Gym in Tech’s Student Development Complex was filled with the graduates, faculty, staff, family and friends to celebrate this achievement.

Michigan Tech President Rick Koubek welcomed the assembled crowd and led everyone in a round of applause for the graduates. “Graduation is truly a time to reflect, rejoice, and celebrate all your hard work and your dedication,” he told the graduates. “For most though, the road to graduation is not traveled alone. There are many people who you partnered with on this journey.” At that point, Koubek paused to recognize and honor friends and family of the graduates.

In keeping with MTU’s tradition of having a student deliver the commencement address, Quinn Riordan, an applied ecology and environmental science major from Minneapolis, was chosen for the honor. In her speech, Riordan admitted MTU was not initially on her list of potential schools post high school. However she said an experience in the summer of 2021 changed her perspective. She said she was part of a Youth Conservation Corps group who went out to Isle Royale National Park where she met MTU Research Professor Rolf Peterson. That interaction, and a future conversation with Peterson, convinced Riordan that MTU was the right school for her. During her time at Tech, Riordan engaged in several field-based learning opportunities including an Integrated Field Practicum at the Ford Center in Alberta, something she said “is an experience I will never be able to recreate anywhere else.”

Riordan injected some MTU-style humor when she told her fellow graduates, “Please allow me to be the ‘nth’ person to congratulate you on this achievement.” Taking some time to reminisce on what they were leaving behind with their undergraduate careers complete, she also told her classmates, “Moving forward doesn’t have to mean losing it all.” Riordan encouraged everyone to look back fondly on this time and keep in touch with those who became close. “Congratulations,” she concluded, “and I can’t wait to see how each of you changes the world.”

Koubek then recognized students who were graduating with academic honors and graduates who were veterans of the armed services. Eight graduates who fulfilled the requirements for Tech’s ROTC program came up to the stage to take the oath of office. Five took the oath to join the Army, one for Space Force, and two for the Air Force, all were commissioned second lieutenants.

Each graduate then had their own moment when their name was called, they came forward onto the stage and received their diplomas. After the last graduate sat back down, and they collectively heard from the Alumni Office, the MTU Pep Band regaled the audience with a few songs, graduates joining in one last time. Blizzard T. Husky jazzed up the crowd as well, with a graduation cap donning his head.