Commencement Ceremonies Ready Embry-Riddle Grads for Launch
More than 1,700 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students came together to celebrate earning their degrees during commencement ceremonies at the university’s residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Prescott, Arizona.
Steve Varsano, an Embry-Riddle alumnus (’77) and Board of Trustees member who is an internationally known broker of corporate jets, spoke to a packed audience of Eagles and their families at the second of two ceremonies on May 5.
“Now go hit the ignition button,” he told the new graduates assembled on the floor of Daytona Beach’s Ocean Center.
A total of 1,330 students from the Daytona Beach Campus were awarded their degrees, including 160 earning master’s degrees and 17 receiving doctorates.
“When you started your academic journey at Embry-Riddle, the finish line likely seemed far away,” Embry-Riddle President P. Barry Butler, Ph.D., told the graduates. “But today, you cross that line. You are no longer a student but a soon-to-be alum.”
Alumnus Christopher Browne, who is head of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, served as the keynote speaker for the first Daytona Beach Campus undergraduate ceremony. (Photo: Embry-Riddle/David Massey)
Keynote Speaker: Christopher Browne
Christopher Browne, an Embry-Riddle alumnus (’19) and Navy fighter pilot, delivered the keynote address at the first undergraduate ceremony for the Daytona Beach Campus.
A graduate of the Navy’s elite TOPGUN flying school, Browne piloted the F-14 Tomcat, amassing more than 1,400 flight hours in the supersonic jet and more than 300 carrier landings.
Browne is now head of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, which holds the world’s largest collection of aviation and space artifacts. In his role as the museum’s John and Adrienne Mars Director, Browne said he has witnessed time and again how visitors are still fascinated by the exhibit “Destination Moon,” which includes Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit and the Apollo 11 command module.
“What makes the Apollo story so timeless, so compelling, and so inspiring is that it reminds us of what it means to take on big challenges and solve seemingly intractable problems,” he told the graduates of the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences.
Browne went on to describe the four key elements that, he believes, led to the success of the Apollo missions.
These included “a clear and bold vision,” first articulated by President John F. Kennedy, and a “dedication of resources,” including not only billions of dollars in funding but “thousands of people investing their time, expertise and reputations.”
The mission also required the ability “to tolerate the inevitable risks,” which ranged from the fatal Apollo command capsule fire to a NASA assessment that gave the moon landing only a 5% chance of succeeding, Browne said.
“And finally, that fourth element: human ingenuity,” he said. “The most difficult, the hardest to quantify, and perhaps the most important.”
Browne encouraged the graduates to consider these principles as they look back on their accomplishments at Embry-Riddle.
“Vision. Resources. Tolerance for risk. Human ingenuity,” he said. “Do these things and maybe one day we will be telling your story in the halls of the National Air and Space Museum.”
Alumnus Steve Varsano, founder of The Jet Business, delivered a heartfelt keynote address at the second Daytona Beach Campus undergraduate ceremony. (Photo: Embry-Riddle/Bernard Wilchusky)
Varsano: ‘Make Yourself Proud’
In his keynote speech later that day, Varsano, founder of The Jet Business, offered graduates hard-won advice and anecdotes from his extensive career buying and selling corporate jets — including being held at gunpoint while delivering his first jet.
“We all know that you don't take off without a pre-flight check and a detailed flight plan,” he told the graduates of the College of Aviation and the David B. O’Maley College of Business. “Your life's path that starts tomorrow really should be treated with the same mentality.”
He advised the new graduates to surround themselves with “the best crew,” and to commit and to create their own brands. Varsano challenged them to get outside their comfort zones and to not “let the fear of judgment by others keep you grounded.” He also gave them a lesson in entrepreneurship.
“When I started my company, The Jet Business, there were plenty of times when I didn’t think I was going to make it. I was running out of cash and the deal flow wasn’t enough to support my overhead,” Varsano said. “I had to figure out a way to make it work. It’s my company. When it’s your company, you’re the only one who is going to care most about it succeeding.”
Varsano’s The Jet Business is the world’s only street-level corporate aviation showroom, an extravagant space that features the fuselage of an Airbus Corporate Jet and looks out on London’s Knightsbridge neighborhood.
Varsano — who now inspires the next generation of aviation entrepreneurs through social media, where he has built a large following — encouraged the graduates to “make this university proud.”
“Make your parents proud of you,” he continued, “but most of all, make yourself proud of you.”
Student speaker Abdulla Alakberi, an Aerospace Engineering graduate from the United Arab Emirates, thanked his parents in Arabic during his speech. (Photo: Embry-Riddle/David Massey)
Eagles Ready to Soar
The undergraduate ceremonies for the Daytona Beach Campus featured two student speakers: Abdulla Alakberi, an Aerospace Engineering graduate, and Allison Adams, an Aeronautics graduate.
Alakberi recounted his journey to Embry-Riddle from the United Arab Emirates.
“Each of us walked their own path to get here,” he told his fellow Eagles. “We are honoring the journey that shaped us.”
In her speech, Adams reflected on her course to graduation day, from being drawn to Embry-Riddle for its elite reputation to creating memories that “make us a part of the close-knit Embry-Riddle community.”
Commencements also included 109 graduating ROTC students who were commissioned as officers: 62 Air Force cadets, 27 Army cadets and 20 Navy midshipmen.
Prescott Campus Celebrates Commencement
The Prescott Campus ceremony, held May 3, honored 476 graduating students, including eight who received master’s degrees. Twelve students from the Worldwide Campus participated in the ceremony, including five earning their master’s. Twenty-seven graduating ROTC students were commissioned as officers: 21 Air Force cadets and 6 Army cadets.
Jim Currier, the president and CEO of Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, gave the keynote address, in which he described the university as a “crucible of precision and passion.”
Embry-Riddle “is a launchpad where theory meets practice, where your hopes and dreams of flight and exploration are matched with the discipline to bring them to life,” Currier said.
Currier told the students that they are entering an area of rapid transformation, giving “hypersonics, space tourism, quantum-secure communications and AI-driven flight systems” as examples. The challenges they face “are real,” he said, and include geopolitical uncertainty, climate change and contested airspace.
“But I am not discouraged. And in fact, I am deeply hopeful,” Currier said. “Because I know you are coming. I know this graduating class, forged in classrooms, simulators, labs and hangars, will not only face those challenges — you will outthink them, you will outbuild them, and you will outfly them.”