MAY 15, 2024 — To celebrate its Class of 2024, UTSA is hosting San Antonio’s largest Commencement on Friday, May 17, at the Alamodome. This month, more than 5,000 Roadrunners are eligible to graduate from UTSA, including students expected to graduate this summer. In all, more than 4,100 are expected to receive a bachelor’s degree, more than 800 are expected to receive a master’s degree and 90 are expected to receive a doctoral degree.
While some of these students will enroll in master’s or doctoral degree programs after graduation, many already have jobs waiting for them.
From creating new spaces that foster student innovation to expanding education outside the classroom through experiential learning opportunities, UTSA is investing in workforce development programs to grow San Antonio’s talent pipeline.
Through a combination of industry-relevant courses, projects and involvement in student organizations, UTSA undergraduate Conrad Finos nurtured his passion for cybersecurity and prepared for a career as a cyber professional. The graduate’s choice to attend UTSA was calculated, influenced by the university’s top-ranked cybersecurity program and the strategic opportunities it offered close to home.
Finos will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in cyber security from the Carlos Alvarez College of Business at UTSA.
After graduation, Finos will complete an international internship in Panama with the U.S. Department of State, before joining the agency full time in Washington, D.C. this fall as a diplomatic information specialist.
Meanwhile Ayleen González will remain in San Antonio after graduation. The UTSA education student was recently hired as a full-time teacher at San Antonio Independent School District’s Irving Dual Language Academy, where she completed her student teaching this past year.
She credits UTSA’s reputation of preparing educators of the highest standard for impacting her career choices. González will graduate from the UTSA College of Education and Human Development (COEHD) with her B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies EC-6 and a Bilingual Education Supplemental Certification.
Key to González’s preparation was COEHD’s Signature Residency Model, which provides cohorts of teaching candidates more opportunities to teach, learn and interact with students, fellow teachers and administrators. Its goal is to ensure these future teachers are ready to lead their own classrooms come the first day of school.
“UTSA offers practice exams and study sessions for us to get that degree,” Gonzalez said. “The Academy of Teacher Excellence and the workshops provided by UTSA have supported and prepared me for the challenges and requirements needed to be an educator.”
Institutional data from UTSA shows that, in the last three years, 88% of UTSA’s graduates have stayed and worked in Texas, where they are eagerly sought after by employers in Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.
UTSA will hold two Commencement ceremonies this Friday to celebrate its more than 5,000 spring and summer graduates. The first, scheduled at 10 a.m., will honor graduates from the College of Education and Human Development, the College for Health, Community and Policy, the College of Sciences and University College. The 4:30 p.m. ceremony will celebrate graduates from the Alvarez College of Business, the College of Liberal and Fine Arts, and the Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design.
Alamodome doors will open two hours prior to each ceremony, and each event is expected to be two-and-a-half hours in length. Tickets are not required to enter. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis; handicapped seating is also available for guests.
At 6 p.m. tonight, graduating doctoral students will participate in the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony. At this memorable celebration, each UTSA graduate will be introduced one-by-one, to cross the stage and accept their Ph.D. degree. While on stage, a faculty member and/or advisor will drape the doctoral hood over the graduate’s head and rest it on their shoulders in front of a community of family members and friends.
This year’s celebration will be held in the Arts Building Recital Hall (ARTS 2.03.02) on the UTSA Main Campus. Doors will open one hour before the start of the event. Graduates are encouraged to bring their friends and family.
Additionally, UTSA graduates are invited to participate in the Roadrunner Walk, a graduation tradition. The walk will begin at 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 16, and will proceed along the Main Campus Paseo.
UTSA is a Tier One research university and a Hispanic Serving Institution specializing in cyber, health, fundamental futures and social-economic transformation. The university aspires to become a model for student success, a great public research university and an exemplary for strategic growth and innovative excellence.
