Trinity International University Celebrates 125th Commencement

May 19, 2022

More than 350 students from 10 countries received degrees.

  125th Commencement Students wearing graduation caps and gowns once again graced the campuses of Trinity College, Trinity Graduate School, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Trinity Law School as we celebrated our newest graduates and marked the return of regular, in-person commencement ceremonies for the first time since December 2019. Last year's spring commencement consisted of multiple hybrid ceremonies with limited attendance due to the safety precautions still in place revolving around the COVID-19 pandemic. The Trinity alumni family grew by more than 350 new graduates at the spring commencement. The accomplishments of the Spring Class of 2022 were recognized with in-person and live-streamed commencement ceremonies on May 7 (Trinity Florida and TLS),  May 13 (TC and TGS), and May 14 (TEDS). Truly exceptional students have graduated this year. Representative of this were the many students who participated in the ceremonies delivering speeches, scripture readings, and expressions of gratitude. During the commencement ceremonies, graduating students heard from Provost Wayne Johnson (TC and TGS), Harvard Professor of Law Ruth Okediji (TLS), and popular author, speaker, and academic Ed Stetzer (TEDS). Graduating students also received individual name recognition and participated in the conferral of degrees and the tassel turning ceremony. The 2022 commencement for Trinity College and Trinity Graduate School at both the Deerfield and South Florida campuses featured Provost Johnson's charge to the graduates. "Be a people at peace with God who demonstrate his peace; be a people in whom the Word of Christ dwells richly, and be a people who get up every day and say, 'What I do today, no matter what it is, I'll do it for Jesus.'"
watch Dr. Johnson's full address here -->
  At Trinity Law School's ceremony, Okediji focused on the finitude of life, encouraging graduates, in light of their accomplishments in the midst a disruptive global pandemic, to count their days, to redeem the time, to ask God to "teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Psalm 90:12). "There's only one real reason you chose Trinity Law School—a school driven by faith," she said. "It wasn't just so you could learn all the doctrines and the rules and the processes and the jurisprudence; you chose this place so that you could see the world differently.  In faith, the law allows us to imagine a better organized social environment in which people are increasingly free to experience more fully God's love for humanity."
watch Dr. Okediji's full address here -->
  Stetzer gave the TEDS graduates four charges, taking his cue from John 20:19–21: "We live in tumultuous times; not just due to a viral pandemic but a unique time of cultural turbulence," he said. "But we learn from this episode in the Gospel of John that fear is the opposite of faith, and peace is always the Christian response. The moment we are in doesn't pause the mission we're on." Stetzer then went on to exhort the graduates to always find their hope and motivation in the pervasive peace tied of Christ and his death and resurrection. "I want to encourage all you today that as you walk out—commence—into a world filled with turbulence and tumult that you live as those who have been changed by the work of Christ and are walking in the peace of God that passes all understanding" (Phil. 4:6). And finally, Stetzer charged, "We always go because Jesus came to us—'as the Father has sent me, I am sending you.' . . . When the world is running  in the other direction and is on fire, we Christians rush toward the brokenness and the pain."
watch Dr. Stetzer's full address here -->
  Check out the photo gallery below of this joyful celebration for the graduates and their families! [gallery columns="4" size="medium" ids="911,912,913,914,915,916,917,918,910,919,920,921,922,923,924,925,926,927,928,929,930,934,932"]