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CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University will graduate 7,318 students during its first in-person commencement event in three years. Commencement will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, June 11 at Reser Stadium on the Corvallis campus.

Gates will open at 9 a.m. for commencement and more than 4,000 students are expected to participate in the ceremony. The event is free to attend, open to the public and held rain or shine. Tickets are not required. The ceremony will also be livestreamed at live.oregonstate.edu.

The number of graduates is the second most in university history, six graduates less than who graduated in 2021, a record class for the university. They will add to the ranks of OSU alumni, who have earned 280,013 degrees over the university’s history.

The 7,318 graduates will receive 7,574 degrees. (There will be 250 students receiving two degrees and three who will receive three degrees.)

The commencement address will be given by Lamar Hurd, a youth ambassador and broadcaster for the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon State University alumnus and member of the university’s Board of Trustees.

Hurd graduated from Oregon State in 2006 and was the starting point guard on the basketball team from 2002-2006. Following his graduation, he played professional basketball in Germany in 2006 and 2007. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown appointed him to the OSU Board of Trustees in 2020.

Hurd’s passion for community has led him to engage with multiple youth organizations in Oregon. In 2020, Hurd and his wife, Bethany, launched a television show called “Hurd Mentality,” which airs on Root Sports NW and highlights individuals and organizations that strive to better their community through their daily work.

He has been a Portland Trail Blazers television analyst for six seasons and before that served as a college basketball analyst for Fox Sports Northwest, Root Sports, the Pac-12 Network and ESPN.

Some facts and figures about Oregon State’s class of 2022:

• Of the 7,574 degrees that will be awarded, 5,895 will go to students receiving bachelor’s degrees; 1,184, master’s degrees; 322, doctor of philosophy degrees; 95, doctor of pharmacy degrees; 76, doctor of veterinary medicine degrees; and two, doctor of education.
• OSU’s 2022 graduates represent 35 of Oregon’s 36 counties, 49 states and 62 countries.
• A total of 1,237 identify as Asian; 659, Latinx; 326, First Nation including Alaskan Native; 203, Black or African American; and 124, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
• The oldest graduate is 85 years old; the youngest is 19 years old; the average age is 26.
• The graduating class includes 175 veterans of U.S. military service.
• A record total of 1,680 Oregon State students completed requirements in 54 degree programs this year through Ecampus, the university’s online education provider. The graduates hail from 49 states and 14 countries.
• OSU-Cascades in Bend will award degrees to 227 undergraduate students and 66 graduate students on Sunday, June 12.
• The graduating class includes 1,307 students who are the first in their family to earn a college degree; 4,173 Oregon residents; and 3,145 non-resident students of which 983 are international students.
• The College of Engineering has the most graduates with 1,806, followed by: College of Liberal Arts (1,029); College of Business (959); College of Science (658); College of Public Health and Human Sciences (564); College of Agricultural Sciences (426); College of Forestry (198); College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (193); and College of Education (62).

With this graduating class, Oregon State will now have more than 215,000 alumni living and working in all 50 states and more than 124 countries. 

Each OSU graduate has a compelling story. For example:

• Tuyet ‘Snowy’ To was born and raised in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and is graduating with a degree in accountancy and a minor in economics. She is a senior Honors College ambassador. During her time at OSU, she interned at a real estate company in Austin, Texas and more recently in the San Francisco area with the accounting firm Deloitte, where she has been offered a job upon graduation. To said the Honors College provided her with a strong sense of community, mentorship and a shared sense of passion and motivation with her fellow Honors students.
• Jack Wegrich, who grew up in Santa Cruz, California, and spent summers in Albany, is graduating with a degree in management from the College of Business. He devoted hundreds of hours during the winter term of his senior year to supporting an effort to collect emergency donations for the people of Ukraine following the Russian invasion. Wegrich, who studied supply chain and logistics management, joined the effort at the request of friends in his social network. They knew he had skills to help organize logistics of collecting emergency supplies – including medical, humanitarian and military aid such as Kevlar – and getting it shipped overseas. “I don’t have any military training; I cannot be on the ground over there doing anything,” Wegrich said. “What I could do is this. I do know how; I’ve got these skills.” After graduation, he’ll start a new job in distribution management.
• Melanie Shaw, 22, is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biology and will begin a master’s degree in occupational therapy this fall at Idaho State University. Shaw is an officer in the Disabled Students Union at OSU and has been working to establish a Disability Cultural Center. She also participated in LSAMP, which encourages students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds to pursue STEM fields. “After being diagnosed with a disability halfway through college, I realized a lot of the spaces that exist for racial and ethnic minorities around campus don’t exist for students with disabilities as a marginalized community,” said Shaw, who is half-Hispanic and on the autism spectrum. “I wanted to bring disability into conversations around equity and inclusion.”
• An agricultural worker 10 years ago, Tausha Smith is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering management and in July will start a position with Corvallis-based Gerding Builders as a project engineer. Smith, a self-described “late bloomer” and “kinesthetic learner,” went from working in agriculture to the welding and fabrication program at Chemeketa Community College and after graduation spent four years working in the construction trades. Researching degree options that complemented her professional skills, she has found Oregon State’s CEM program to be a perfect fit. “I’m graduating with strong relationships and networking, problem solving, communication and team-building skills,” she said.
• Even in elementary school, Raquel Diaz helped younger students with schoolwork. Born and raised in Madras, she began her career in human services as a pre-school teacher while earning an associate’s degree. She transferred to OSU-Cascades to study human development and family sciences, and for the past four years also worked full-time as an interventionist at MountainStar Family Relief Nursery in Madras, helping families under stress find resources to get back on track. Her undergraduate classes informed her work and she allowed her to bring valuable insight to the nursery. She recently earned a scholarship to Portland State University where she’ll pursue a graduate certificate in infant and toddler mental health before embarking on a master’s degree in education. She will attend PSU online allowing her to remain in Madras and continue to serve her community.