Vanguard University kicks off graduation season, celebrates Class of 2025
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With the calendar flipping over to May, graduation season has officially arrived.
Vanguard University was the first local school to hold a commencement ceremony, on Thursday, at Mariners Church in Irvine.
Vanguard had 361 members of the Class of 2025 walk across the stage in a morning ceremony, undergraduates no more after university President Michael Beals handed them their diplomas. An additional 53 professional education undergraduates joined 100 graduate students in an afternoon ceremony, for a total of 514 graduates from the private Christian university. hxt ehzfVdcx. vxxczfedxxa
Amberly Gourlay, the student speaker at the morning ceremony, graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in history and political science, minoring in theology and public policy.
Gourlay, the student body president, made Vanguard and Southern California her home the last four years after being born in Alaska and raised in Durban, South Africa. She served as a College Corps resident and fellow and was a resident assistant in Newport Hall on campus.
“It’s very bittersweet and hard to be leaving something that’s become so familiar,” Gourlay said in an interview. She plans to attend graduate school on the East Coast at Northeastern University. “With that, I’m so excited for what’s upcoming ... I think Vanguard has been a safe space for me to land in the U.S. I feel like I’ve been very protected and given opportunities to really practice my gifts, in the sense of my spirituality but then also what I feel God is calling me into in terms of profession and study. Moving to a new place and learning a new culture, it’s a very vulnerable process, but I feel like Vanguard walked me slowly through that.”
Howard Booker, who earned his master’s in business administration at Vanguard in 2008, delivered the commencement address. Booker is the executive director of the In-N-Out Burger Foundation.
He said he frequently works with youth in foster care, often adopted or dealing with homelessness.
“If you’re graduating here today and your journey included heartache, loss, trauma ... this moment is even sweeter for you if that’s your story,” Booker told the graduates. “Remember that those moments are part of your story, but they do not define you.”
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