The University of Connecticut awarded 524 doctoral degrees on Monday, May 12 at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts in the conclusion to three days of commencement ceremonies at Storrs. The doctorate recipients might have been well past their Sesame Street phase, but the letter of the day was unquestionably C.

“Commencement. That’s why we’re here,” said the Honorable Sethuraman Panchanathan, former director of the U.S. National Science Foundation, the keynote speaker for the ceremony who was also awarded an honorary doctorate.

Panchanathan went on to list nine attributes beginning with the letter C that the doctoral recipients should hold as fundamental values to uphold, including curiosity, creativity, convergence, collaboration, change, courage, can-do spirit, communication, and commitment. And then he gave them an additional challenge.

“There is so much potential across all this great nation,” he said. “Each of you take 25 people to mentor, make the difference to 25 people who would otherwise not have had the opportunities” you have had, Panchanathan said. “This is your quest.”

The letter C re-emerged later in the ceremony when the nominator for UConn linguistics professor Željko Bošković, who won the Edward C. Marth mentorship award, said Boskovic exhibited “complete commitment” to his graduate students.

UConn President Radenka Maric added a few more Cs when she spoke of the challenge of fostering innovation, and remarked on all the children in the room. To all the parents, and to the graduates, she gave one final C.

“Congratulations!”