SLU-Madrid Celebrates Spring 2024 Commencement Ceremony
05/10/2024
The Madrid campus' class of 2024 consists of 62 graduates from 19 countries and 18 U.S. states.
The SLU-Madrid community and graduates' families and friends gathered on Friday, May
10, to cheer on graduates at the nearby Espacio Pablo VI auditorium, a five-minute
walk from campus.
The 62 graduates are from 19 countries, including Angola, Canada, China, Colombia,
Ecuador, El Salvador, Georgia, Haiti, Lebanon, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Russia,
Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Spain, Syria, the United States and Venezuela.
American graduates represent 18 U.S. states. These are California, Connecticut, Florida,
Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri,
New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
Six students earned master of arts degrees: five in political science and public affairs, international relations and crisis, and one in Spanish.
Two students selected by SLU-Madrid faculty spoke during the ceremony to congratulate their peers.
"The beautiful diversity of our student body is bittersweet because the connections that we formed that have become our anchors — our sources of laughter and comfort — will soon stretch across oceans and continents," said Amal Darwiche Hammoud during her graduation speech. "I'm so excited to reunite with my anchors one day in some random corner of the world, or maybe right back here where sometimes it feels like you were all in place from across the globe to be put in each other's paths."
Computer science major Claudio Catalano Leiva addressed the audience in Spanish. Raised in Spain and Saudi Arabia, he commented on the welcoming community built around SLU-Madrid.
Among the Class of 2024 students, the top undergraduate degrees awarded this spring are international business, political science and computer science. Several graduates double majored, or even "triple or quadruple majored" as said among the graduating class.
