New London ― Mitchell College graduate Anthony Marini said the Class of 2024 has been through ups and downs and mastered late-night study sessions, negotiated the complexity of relationships, discovered passions and hobbies and even battled their way through a worldwide pandemic.

“After all, life isn’t about finding shelter in the storm; it’s about learning how to dance in the rain,” Marini said to fellow graduates during Saturday’s commencement ceremony. “And that’s how these experiences have fashioned you into the people you are now: resilient, eager, and ready to leave your mark on the world.”

The Mitchell College Class of 2024, dressed in black caps and gowns, graduated on the sunny morning in a tent on the Campus Green. The class had 112 graduates, 10 with Associate degrees and 102 with Bachelor degrees.

Delivering the commencement address, Dan Holdridge, who survived the attack on the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, encouraged the graduates to imagine a world where people can learn to walk in each other’s shoes, and differences are celebrated, not a cause for division. He told them to have compassion “for what others walk with every day.”

“Feel the impact you can make in someone else’s life,” Holdridge said. “Your words matter. Your actions matter. Bottom line, this world needs more love in it. This very complex world we live in requires us to stop thinking of ourselves first, and instead inject empathy and kindness into our daily lives. When we learn to walk in each other’s shoes, we lighten the burden others are carrying – and I believe in my heart that this prevents other 9/11’s from happening.”

President of the College Tracy Y. Espy said she feels especially connected to the class of 2024 because they both began their journeys around the same time when the world was facing the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Together we overcame the challenges, navigated the lessons, and allowed joy and laughter to guide us and carry us through to this day,” Espy said.

During the ceremony, William Marshall Dreier was honored as the valedictorian and Jenna Marie Bennett as the salutatorian.

Graduate Sevda Kalican of Quaker Hill, who majored in criminal justice and interned in the juvenile probation office in Waterford, said in an interview after the ceremony that she hopes to become a juvenile probation officer.

She transferred to Mitchell two years ago after finishing her associates degree at Three Rivers.

“I found a lot of good friends in my major, a really nice tight-knit group of kids, and it’s been absolutely amazing,” Kalican said. “The faculty is so dedicated, and they're so hard-working and kind and reliable, and the campus is absolutely beautiful. It’s been wonderful.”

Her mother Ayfer Kaya, who is originally from Turkey, said Kalican is the first in the immediate family to graduate from college and is the first female graduate among Kaya’s siblings’ children.

“I’m so very proud of her, and she’s going to do big and beautiful things,” Kaya said.

Graduate Carly Potts of New London, who was hired as a community service officer at the Groton Long Point Police Department, wants to apply for a state job in probation or parole.

She said the graduation feels very special, particularly because she didn’t get to have the typical high school graduation due to the pandemic. Her grandparents, mother, father, brother, sister, boyfriend and boyfriend’s family came to the graduation.

“I feel very lucky to have had such a great opportunity to go to school almost in my backyard so I think that that’s made it really great, and I’ve made some great friends,” said Potts.

k.drelich@theday.com