May 1, 2015
The April 2015 convocation ceremony honored the most graduates that the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences has seen in years.
Four hundred and forty students graduated, with 15 receiving doctoral degrees, 39 receiving master’s degrees, and 386 receiving bachelor’s degrees.
Graduates were privileged to hear from Associate Dean Thomas W. Sederberg, Daniel Woodbury, graduating summa cum laude in physics, and Jessica Leete, graduating magna cum laude in mathematics.
Sederberg focused his address on finding beauty in life.
“I hope that during your years at BYU, you have encountered breathtakingly beautiful concepts and principles that have caused your spirits to soar,” he said to graduates.
Referring to a study done several years ago, Sederberg explained that mathematicians can have the same cerebral reaction to mathematical equations that normally occurs when seeing or hearing beautiful art.
He gave as an example of a beautiful equation, Euler’s identity: eiπ+1=0. “To people who don’t know about e or i or π, this equation means nothing,” he said to the graduates. “But your education has empowered you to perceive its beauty.”
Sederberg gave the graduates three suggestions to help them make their graduation even more beautiful: take pictures, say “thank you,” and review statements made by prophets and apostles about BYU.
Sederberg concluded with the invitation to let the spirit and beauty be our guide.
Woodbury advised his fellow graduates to “be a light to the world,” and to avoid focusing too much on career and maintaining a balance in life. Woodbury spoke of the need to avoid making career the most time-consuming part of our lives.
Leete discussed the bright future that BYU graduates have ahead of them and their ability to tackle difficult challenges. She discussed her personal growth throughout her years at BYU and the discovery that she could do hard things.
Kyle Glen Miller, physics graduate, on the baritone saxophone, Zoe Jorgenson on the bass, Brennan Tolman on the drums, and Nathan Innis on the piano also favored graduates with a special jazz musical number of “On the Sunny Side of the Street” by Jimmy McHugh.
This lively musical number harmonized perfectly with the lively, energetic message conveyed by the speakers as graduates head on to the next stage.
— Tanner Call and Tiana Moe, College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences