‘This ceremony is for you’: First World New Paltz celebrates community on 2025 Commencement weekend
A cherished campus tradition returned with the annual First World Graduation ceremony on May 17, 2025, a joyous celebration honoring the successes of SUNY New Paltz students from underrepresented backgrounds.
[Click here for photos from First World Graduation 2025]
For more than five decades, the student-run First World New Paltz organization has hosted a special Commencement weekend event, open to all members of the campus community, that spotlights the resilience and successes of graduating students of color.
“Let this moment be a reminder that you are enough,” said First World New Paltz Co-President Haley Alaia ’25 (Visual Arts Education). “This ceremony is for you. After you leave this campus today, I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
Serving as guest speaker for the 2025 graduation was Esi Lewis, Ulster County Chief Diversity Officer and founder of the Margaret Wade-Lewis Center in New Paltz.
“I’m so proud of you, so proud of us collectively as a people,” she said. “I need you all to not survive, but to thrive, because we need each other.”
The program also features creative performance, food and fun for graduates and their friends and families.
“As long as you’re moving forward, you’re moving,” said President Darrell P. Wheeler. “We’re here to help you and carry you.”
[Click here to view the full list of students honored at the 2025 First World Graduation Ceremony.]
First World Graduation is especially significant for first-generation graduates: students who are the first in their family to achieve the milestone of earning a university degree.
“It means a lot, because it feels like I’m representing my family,” said Abigail Webb ’24 (Digital Media Production). “When I have kids of my own one day, I can walk them through the same process of financial aid like I had to go through, and they can come out on the other side.”