Fifty members of Darrick Silversmith's Navajo tribe watched affiliate faculty member Kori Guy present Silversmith, her nephew, with his diploma.

Of the more than 1,000 Metro State graduates who received their diplomas Dec. 13 at Fall Commencement at the Colorado Convention Center, one received his diploma from his aunt, with 50 supporters from his tribe in attendance.

Darrick Silversmith, a political science major, is the first of his generation from the Navajo Tribe to graduate with a bachelor’s degree. Fifty members of his tribe came from Arizona to witness Silversmith’s accomplishment. Kori Guy, affiliate faculty member in the Political Science Department and Silversmith’s aunt, conferred his degree, as well as that of her daughter, English major Heather Dower.

President Stephen Jordan cited Silversmith in his opening remarks, after asking the crowd of 10,000, “Where else would you be greeted with 1,066 stories of inspiration?”

Outstanding Fall Graduate Award recipient Tanya Chesney, a biology major, delivered an address to her classmates, recalling “how appreciative we were, to have professors rather than T.A.s, to be not just a number but a name, (and) to have fellow classmates that were motivated and active in their learning. These were the great things that set our experience here at Metro State apart from other institutions.”

Franklin speaks of Metro State’s “gift of leadership”
Commencement speaker Bernard Franklin, executive vice president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, said that in the more than 50 commencement exercises in which he had participated during his 15 years as a university president, he always held one wish: that the speaker not be long-winded. Franklin went on to quote one of the shortest commencement exercises ever delivered, by comedian Bob Hope: “Graduates, it’s a cruel world out there. Don’t go.”

Franklin said, “Contrary to the admonition of Mr. Hope, you must go forward. Because there is a world out there that desperately needs you. A world that needs your talents and the gift of leadership that Metro State has given each of you.”

Citing Metro State’s role in the community, Franklin said, “You’re located in the heart of the City of Denver but you also have the City of Denver in your heart, in terms of meeting the needs of this community.”

He added that Metro State is “not only a place where success begins with you, but one where leadership begins with you.”

Franklin told the graduates that he, like some of them, was not only the first in his family to graduate from college, but the first to graduate from high school. “I stand before you as a living testament that you should never underestimate the powerful, transformative power of the gift of leadership.”

The full commencement video stream can be viewed at http://www.mscd.edu/commencement/pastandfuture/.