Student Speaker Jonathan Collard de Beaufort ’25: ‘Let’s Go Be Brilliant’

University Scholar Jonathan Collard de Beaufort ’25 looked back on all that the Class of 2025 has accomplished and acknowledged what it took to get to Commencement.

“I’m here as one of 12 University Scholars, yet I know every single person in this stadium can tell their own stories of hard work, late nights and figuring it out along the way,” said Collard de Beaufort, while addressing graduates during Commencement exercises May 11 in the JMA Wireless Dome.

“As a class, we have produced 3D printed tissues, built machine-learning algorithms, worked in architecture firms on four continents and researched court decisions on free speech. We have competed as Division 1 athletes and Academic All-Americans,” said Collard de Beaufort, a biochemistry major in the College of Arts and Sciences and member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program. “We each had our own version of figuring it out. Mine involved texting neurosurgeons until one of them replied, which led me into research and device development in neurosurgery.”

The University has been a launchpad for dreamers and doers, he said.

“Our inquiring and collaborative nature has taken us far together. We’ve set records in this dome for student attendance,” Collard de Beaufort said. “We volunteered in our community and raised record-breaking funds for OttoTHON, our yearly fundraiser dance marathon. We’ve built beds for local children needing a safe place to sleep, proving that Orange is the color of compassion.”

Throughout their time at the University, graduates have risen to the challenge as they have created, invented and explored.

“We’ve been bold. We took risks. We crossed borders. We found answers,” Collard de Beaufort said.

He also recognized that many people are involved in each graduate’s success.

“We thank our professors, the administration and staff, and our families who have been with us throughout,” Collard de Beaufort said. “And we thank our classmates who helped us along the way, who stayed up late with us, told us we could do it and reminded us who we were when we forgot.”

Collard de Beaufort encouraged graduates to carry that spirit of support and togetherness as they go out into the world.

“Congratulations, Class of 2025. We made it,” he said. “Let’s go be brilliant, be Orange.”