Commencement 2026: Speech by Board of Trustees Chair Alisia St. Florian ’86

It is my greatest honor on behalf of the entire Board of Trustees to welcome all of you to Wheeler’s 137th commencement. We are so very proud of all of you and grateful to your families and friends who have supported and loved you. We are especially indebted to all of you for the many and varied contributions that you have made to our Wheeler family and the legacy that you are leaving behind.

Speaking of leaving things behind, I have been thinking recently about chapters in life closing and new ones beginning. After ten incredibly enriching years, I am ending my time on the Wheeler Board. Like all of you, I have learned so much, stretched myself in new ways, met wonderful people who have become friends, been challenged by people I respect with differing views, and I know that I am not the same person I was when I started this journey.

I imagine that as you sit here today you are filled with so many emotions. Leaving people and communities that we know and are a part of is hard, especially when the next chapter is yet to unfold. Undoubtedly, you are both sad and excited, filled with both apprehension and hope, wanting to break away but also feeling tugged back.

You may know the physical location of where you are going next but so much is yet to be written and experienced. Standing on this precipice between past and future you may feel like you taking a leap of faith but also recognize the opportunity to soar. We all know the cliché nothing ventured nothing gained but now you are about to put it to the test.

The funny thing is that as I am writing these comments, my phone is dinging with text messages from my Wheeler class of 1986 classmates, as we are planning a get together in Providence in a few days. We call the text chain “the Glory Days” because our bond is the rock solid foundation we can come back to, even decades and what seems like a lifetime later.

And this is what you all have too. Your Wheeler friendships will undoubtedly serve as your place of comfort for a lifetime to come. The people sitting next to you right now know you in ways that will be hard to duplicate. You have quite literally grown up together and while you will each forge your own paths, some so vastly different then others and each one uniquely yours, my hope is that you will also have a text chain to these friendships that will remind you of who you are, will accept and love you for who you become and will be there for your to celebrate to support and to comfort, from near or far, whenever you just need that old friend to lean on.

This is a magical place because you were a part of it. We cannot wait to see how you go out and make the world a better place, each in your very own way. But please do come back, stay in touch, and remember that your Wheeler community will always be rooting you on.