2024 Commencement Speaker
Eboo Patel
Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America, will give the keynote address for the University of Utah’s 2024 general campus-wide commencement.
Eboo Patel, founder and president of U President Taylor Randall and Jack O’Leary, president of the Associated Students of the University of Utah (ASUU), announced the commencement speaker at the Feb. 13 Board of Trustees meeting.
Patel, a U impact scholar and civic leader dedicated to fostering understanding and fellowship within America’s religious diversity, is uniquely qualified to speak to U graduates who enter the workforce at an increasingly polarized time, Randall said.
“We are very happy to have Eboo Patel serve as our 2024 Commencement speaker,” Randall said. “Eboo understands the unique moment we are in and its importance to higher education, and I believe that his message is critical for students to hear.”
The General Commencement is scheduled for Thursday, May 2 at 6 p.m. at the Jon M. Huntsman Center.
A Rhodes Scholar and author of five books, including “We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy,” Patel is an Ashoka Fellow who holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University. He also served on President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Faith Council. Patel is a contributing writer for the Deseret News and the host of the podcast, “Interfaith America with Eboo Patel.”
As president of Interfaith America, Patel has led the organization’s work with governments, universities, private companies and civic organizations to brand faith as a symbol of cooperation rather than one of divisiveness.
Patel said his message to today’s college students is to be leaders.
“Be the pilot, not the passenger,” Patel said. “It’s the pilot’s job not just to guide the plane through turbulence but to remain calm and give people confidence. And that’s the kind of leadership we need right now. We need people to set up and ask the question: How am I going to make this situation better?”
As campuses across the United States, including the U, have seen demonstrations and tensions rise in the wake of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, Patel said this moment is one that calls for students to rise up and be interfaith leaders.
“Interfaith leadership is no longer a thought experiment,” Patel said. “There are groups of students that are no longer talking to one another and they are largely defined by their religious identity. Could you be a person they go to help facilitate a dialogue in that situation? What skills and knowledge would you need? How would you prepare for that?”
Randall said that Patel knows how to build bridges and “what it takes to innovate solutions through very difficult challenges. The Class of 2024 understands challenges as well, given many of our graduating students started their college careers at the height of the COVID pandemic. I look forward to the message he will share with our students as they embark on the next phase of their lives.”
University impact scholars—like Patel—and the knowledge and experience they bring to the U are an intrinsic part of Randall’s vision of making the university a top 10 public institution with unsurpassed societal impact. Visiting university impact scholars are appointed for two years and visit the university’s Salt Lake City campus two to three times a year. In 2023, the commencement address was given by impact scholar Tim Shriver.
@theU, dated February 13, 2024
2024 Student Speaker
For the 2024 University of Utah student commencement speaker Eron Powell, a love of learning is one of the most important things he is taking away from his time at the U.
For the 2024 University of Utah student commencement speaker Eron Powell, a love of
learning is one of the most important things he is taking away from his time at the
U.“Outside of college and into the future, I hope to always be able to educate myself,” Powell said. “We are never complete people. We have to keep working on ourselves. That is the fun of living— learning to be a better person who is more kind, more compassionate and more caring.”
Twenty-six-year-old Powell grew up in Emmett, Idaho with his seven siblings. Graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology, he was drawn to the U because of the school’s research opportunities and the prestige of the U’s College of Science.
Though Powell faced many challenges during his first year of college, from health issues to adapting to rigorous course work to finding his place among strangers, there is a lot he will miss about being a U student.
“As we approach commencement, I’m sadder than I thought I would be,” Powell said. “I thought I’d be so excited, but I really loved my experience at the U. So it’s hard that it’s ending.”
While at the U, Powell worked as a teaching assistant for organic chemistry and cell biology and participated in multiple undergraduate research opportunities. He spent three years in leadership for the U’s Vegan Club as the service coordinator. Most recently, Powell’s non-profit, Bloom Collective, received approval to put a monarch waystation on campus.
After graduation, Powell plans on going to medical school. His desire to be a physician grew from the time he spent around healthcare professionals due to his own medical needs.
“One thing that has become really important to me is realizing that I love to do things I find meaningful,” Powell said. “I want to make an impact on the world in whatever way I can.”
When it comes to the lifelong pursuit of knowledge, Powell believes this is about more than being educated, but about what that education does to a person.
The true purpose of college was not merely to become educated but rather to be made excellent,” Powell says. “The University is not interested in supplying a multitude of facts to be forgotten when we enter the workforce. Nor, is it simply interested in creating dedicated workers. Rather the mission of the University of Utah is to welcome new freshmen and shape them into people of excellence who will make exceptional contributions to society.”
The General Commencement ceremony where Powell will speak will be held on Thursday, May 2 at 6 p.m. in the Jon M. Huntsman Center. Read more about the 2024 commencement here.
@theU, dated April 23, 2024