As they waited for their commencement ceremony to start, Slippery Rock University graduates expressed hope to put as much into the world as they got out of their college education for the past four years.

Across two ceremonies Saturday morning and afternoon, 1,300 students from the Class of 2016 were commenced in front of a crowd of admiring faculty, friends and relatives.

The college of health, environment and science and college of liberal arts students were commenced in the morning, while the college of business and college of education students were commenced in the afternoon.

Many of them were from Butler County, including music education majors Austin Wolford and Simon Newbert, both Knoch High School graduates.

Newbert spoke on his experience, citing time student-teaching at New Castle High School and at Shaler Middle School.

“I got a lot of experiences and really could apply all of my education from here,” he said.

Wolford spoke of a different kind of learning.

“I learned a lot about myself (at Slippery Rock),” Wolford said. “I made a lot of new friends and kind of came out of my shell in college.”

Newbert wants to be a band and orchestra director, while Wolford wants to be a high school choir director.

Like Wolford, graduate Paula Lockwood, a Seneca Valley High School graduate, also connected with others while at Slippery Rock. It came in handy for her as an art major.

“(My experience was) just being self-motivated and really developing relationships with my peers and professors,” she said. “We had a really small department, so we had a lot of one-on-one time and I think that helped all of our art majors, me specifically.”

Lockwood wants to move to a city and work in an art gallery.

One graduate, histotechnology major Karlie Bly, already has a full-time position in her field.

Histotechnology is the science of cell structure and that structure's formation into tissues and organs. Histotechnologists and histologists are members of laboratory teams who diagnose diseases, conduct research, or teach others in the field.

Bly, who is from West Sunbury, started at Slippery Rock with a different plan.

“I came in as a secondary science education major, and I knew that I couldn't do it, so my professors have helped me to find the path that I wanted to take for my career,” she said.

She credits one particular professor as her mentor.

“Dr. Susan Rehorek has gotten me to wherever I wanted to be,” Bly said. “She's awesome.”

Slippery Rock Assistant Professor of Psychology Jennifer Willford was the commencement speaker, and kicked her speech off in a lively fashion.

After professing that she always wanted to hit a home run as a Pittsburgh Pirate, she played her “walk up” music, “The Walker” by Fitz and the Tantrums, while inviting the students to get up and dance.

She then tied that in with one last lesson for her students, with three main points.

“First, when you're given an opportunity to live, to let go and have fun, to be entirely yourself, go for it,” she said.

Then, she spoke on the importance of relationships: “This celebration would be meaningless if we didn't have each other.”

Lastly, she spoke on hope, and the ability the students have to use what they've learned for the good of themselves and others.

“You have the power to transform,” she said.

After she delivered her lesson, she left them with one final message: “It's the little things that lead up to a big life.”