Photo: Matthew Prescavage, an Aerospace Engineering graduate, served as the featured student speaker at the Prescott Campus ceremony. (Photo: Embry-Riddle/Connor McShane)
A total of 484 graduates walked the commencement stage at Embry-Riddle’s Prescott Campus ceremony May 6, including 474 bachelor’s degree earners and ten master’s students, as well as four bachelor’s and 10 master’s students from the Worldwide Campus.
That total also included 34 cadets commissioned into the military: 24 Air Force ROTC cadets and 10 Army ROTC cadets.
The graduating class included 70 international students representing: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Mongolia, India, Spain, Taiwan, China, Republic of Korea, Philippines, Mexico, Russian Federation, France, Canada, Denmark, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Luxembourg; Viet Nam, Nigeria, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Africa, Croatia and Pakistan.
“Your talent, dreams and hard work brought you here today,” said Dr. Anette M. Karlsson, Prescott Campus chancellor. “You are now part of the Embry-Riddle family and are well-prepared for promising careers in your chosen areas of aviation, aerospace, cybersecurity, business, science, engineering and more. I know you will accomplish amazing things.”
The class speaker was Aerospace Engineering graduate Matthew Prescavage, a Hainesport, New Jersey, native and graduate of Rancocas Valley Regional High School. Prescavage earned the Prescott Campus Chancellor Award, the highest award bestowed to a graduate, recognizing exceptional academic and leadership achievements.
Looking back, Prescavage reminisced about a letter he wrote in middle school to his future self. The theme of that letter was about wanting to learn and experience life in a different way, something he found at Embry-Riddle.
“We experience new events, and more importantly, we grow up,” Prescavage said. “We learn what it’s like to be an adult, how to communicate with others, file our taxes and become the person our younger self would be proud of becoming.
“The future may be difficult and it will get bumpy at times, but you will always have support from your classmates and professors, your family and those you love,” Prescavage told his peers.
Prescavage’s academic success has earned him membership in the Sigma Gamma Tau Aerospace Engineering Honor Society, Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society and the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.
He was also part of a project funded by the Philanthropy Council, working closely with the Undergraduate Research Institute, in which his team is designing and integrating a quadcopter onto a rocket body to demonstrate the feasibility of a medium-scale rocket retrieval and landing system.
During the past two summers, Matthew had productive internships. In 2021, he was a quality engineering intern at L3Harris in Camden, New Jersey where he worked with the United States Coast Guard communications systems and equipment. In 2022, he was a Flight Deck Systems Engineering Intern at Honeywell in Phoenix where he had the opportunity to work with avionics software benches for several Boeing commercial aircraft as well as Dassault and Gulfstream business jets.
Embry-Riddle Trustee Dr. Sally Mason delivered the keynote address at the Prescott Campus ceremony. (Photo: Embry-Riddle/Connor McShane)
Commencement remarks were given by Embry-Riddle Trustee Dr. Sally Mason, president emerita with the University of Iowa. “Many of you may be lucky enough to go right into the workforce, into jobs that your parents will understand and be proud of,” said Mason.
“You’ll be pilots, engineers, air traffic controllers, aerospace industry workers; work in small businesses of your own making and in large businesses that will dominate the aviation and aerospace landscape for the foreseeable future,” Mason said. “And some of you may be like me, a first-generation college student whose parents don’t always understand what you are doing.”
As the daughter of an immigrant father and the first in her family to attend college, Mason offered a unique perspective. A lifelong scholar, she earned her bachelor’s in Zoology from the University of Kentucky, her master’s from Purdue University, and her Ph.D. in cellular, molecular and developmental biology from the University of Arizona.
During her illustrious career, Mason held many leadership positions and has influenced education and science policy at the highest levels. She encouraged graduates to follow their dreams and remember the guiding principles known as the Paradoxical Commandments.
Written by Dr. Kent M. Keith in 1968 as part of a booklet for student leaders, these “anyways” still hold true today, said Mason. In part: “People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.”
