Commencement 2025 (SUNY Geneseo photo/Matt Burkhartt)
On Saturday, May 17, SUNY Geneseo held its 159th Commencement, conferring more than 900 degrees before a capacity audience of family, friends, faculty, and staff.
Outgoing President Denise A. Battles gave the commencement keynote, reflecting on her own college experience as a first-generation student as well as her ten-year tenure at Geneseo. Saying that she, too, felt like she was graduating, Battles reminded graduates to consider their responsibility to pay back all who made the day possible.
“I charge you, our graduates, to take up this cause to foster and champion our beloved college and public higher education more broadly,” Battles said. “Extol their virtues and advance the case for support with others, including elected officials. Advocate for Geneseo by recruiting prospective students. Tell them about the affordable, accessible, and excellent public liberal arts college perched over the Genesee River; urge them to seek out the wonders you have found here. You are the best of what the College is and our most effective advertisement. You are what we work so tirelessly to nurture—the lucky few who today join the long line of exceptional Geneseo alumni out there making a difference.”
Gaetan Jean Louis ’25 was this year’s senior orator at the morning ceremony. Jean Louis, who grew up in Haiti, graduated with a double major in sociology and Spanish. Sophia Sabatino ’25 spoke at the afternoon ceremony. She graduated with a major in communication and served on the Student Association Executive Committee.
Jean Louis also received the Richard Roark Award this year. The award is presented to a graduating senior whose excellence in scholarship and community service emulates Roark, a former Geneseo professor of anthropology who was presumed drowned off the island of Guadeloupe in the French West Indies.
Receiving the Student Association President’s Cup this year was Ashley Ames ’25, from Albion, NY, an English and history double major with minors in college honors and medieval studies. The award is given annually to a graduating senior who exemplifies superior service and dedication to the Geneseo Student Association.
Watch our
Watch videos of the and