It was a beautiful night to honor the Class of 2021 during our 137th graduation. After a challenging year, we were thrilled to welcome families back on campus to celebrate on the Anning Lawn.

It was a little bit different than ceremonies of the past because of spacing and other requirements because of the pandemic. 

In his final act as a member of the Maumee Valley faculty, Tom Cambisios addressed the Class of 2021. He is retiring after 28 years at MV. Cambisios’ bellowing laugh and warm greetings are as legendary as his penchant for proper grammar and his love of fine literature.

“Here’s an important key to happiness:  live a life centered on others,” Cambisios said during her speech. “Yes, choose a career that brings you joy and fulfillment, but for real happiness, bring joy and fulfillment to others. Teaching, of course, is an “other-centered” career.  Engineering can be too, if you focus on projects that will help other people. Art can be “other-centered” if you think of creating art as bringing happiness or new ways of thinking to other people. Paradoxically, the more you place other people in the foreground, the more your own personal happiness will grow. If you’re ever feeling down when in college, go help other people.

“Finally, live a life of gratitude every day. When you were freshmen, grading your essays started off like wading through quicksand, without all the pleasant jungle scenery and the leisure time as you got sucked under. Now, here is another confession: I loved grading your essays, even when I didn’t like it. Because by the fall, I saw topic sentences finally pop up like oases in the desert of your prose. By the winter, your use of supporting evidence grew like a colony of E. coli.  And by the spring, you could craft a compelling argument better than a narcoleptic lawyer. (I’m really killing the analogies here.) Keep a gratitude journal. Gratitude sometimes asks you to look at what you love, not what you like. Like Snickers bars. Love life. Because the more you are thankful for the things you love, the happier you will be. Maumee Valley is a special place. Even on the days when I didn’t like teaching here, I loved teaching here.”

There were 63 graduates this year, although some could not be with us in person and were celebrating with their families at home.

The event was recorded and streamed live on YouTube. You can watch it here.

Congratulations to the class of 2021!