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Text: Maryville College senior class president’s remarks to the Class of 2023

Photo of Allie Osorio Candelario delivering her senior remarks at the MC 2023 Baccalaureate service
Allie Osorio Candelario ’23, president of the senior class, delivering her senior remarks at the MC 2023 Baccalaureate service held Friday, May 5, 2023.

May 5, 2023

Allie Osorio Candelario ’23, president of the senior class of Maryville College, gave remarks to the Class of 2023 during Baccalaureate on May 5, 2023. Here is the full text of her remarks.

Guys we actually did it. We are graduating tomorrow! I honestly do not know what to say other than I am so proud of everyone here! We entered Maryville College in 2019 expecting a normal college experience. Then COVID hit us. We blinked and now we are graduating. Isn’t that crazy?

But before we talk about graduation can we all just take a minute? Let’s reminisce on that week that we had to come to campus for the first time. Some of us were moving into their rooms, hugging their parents for the last time in a minute. Some of us were stepping on campus for the first time by ourselves. Some of us were walking around campus to explore and find room to hang out until the first Great Beginnings meeting started. So many emotions as a freshman! The excitement of being an “adult” and living on your own. The sense of freedom we all experienced. And the fear of entering college.

I want to focus on that emotion, fear, whether you had a parent or family member that graduated college or if you are a first-generation student. Many of us were fearful because regardless of if your parents did or did not go to college, nobody has that perfect step-by-step plan. Nobody can tell you what to do to be successful in college or in life. But look at us: Now we have successfully accomplished obtaining our undergraduate degree.

I think we are all again feeling all those same emotions that we had freshman year. Relief of school being over after four exhausting years. The excitement of getting out in the world. But yet again the fear, the fear of readjusting to a whole new school or finding our own way in the world.

I just want to say that we got it. Yes, change is scary; yes, we do not have this perfect step-by-step plan, but you know what we do have? The knowledge and experience from here, at Maryville College. We have developed resiliency, communication skills, and critical thinking skills, essential components that will help us in the world. We have also built bonds and memories with students and faculty and staff. These connections are something that I will cherish for a lifetime, and hope you all feel the same.

After one semester of normalcy, two years of Zoom classes, half a year of hybrid classes, and senior year … we have finally overcome all these challenges. We are graduating from Maryville College tomorrow, Class of 2023! 

Maryville College is a nationally-ranked institution of higher learning and one of America’s oldest colleges. For more than 200 years we’ve educated students to be giving citizens and gifted leaders, to study everything, so that they are prepared for anything — to address any problem, engage with any audience and launch successful careers right away. Located in Maryville, Tennessee, between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the city of Knoxville, Maryville College offers nearly 1,200  students from around the world both the beauty of a rural setting and the advantages of an urban center, as well as more than 60 majors, seven pre-professional programs and career preparation from their first day on campus to their last. Today, our 10,000 alumni are living life strong of mind and brave of heart and are prepared, in the words of our Presbyterian founder, to “do good on the largest possible scale.”