Rainy or not, here the class of 2015 comes

Wet weather wasn’t enough to keep thousands of graduates, families and friends from celebrating the class of 2015 on May 15 at the 132nd annual commencement ceremony.

More than 15,000 students earned degrees, with six honorary degrees bestowed on leaders in the health, law, business and the arts and entertainment industries. Honorees included Pete Carroll, head coach of the Seattle Seahawks and former USC head football coach; Kamala D. Harris, the first South Asian and African American to be elected Attorney General of California; Leonard D. Schaeffer, chief executive of Wellpoint insurance company; Michael Tilson Thomas, director of the San Francisco Symphony; and Ada Yonath, Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry in 2009.  Commencement speaker Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments, also received an honorary degree from the university.

Many speakers touched on the idea of love as a means of providing a foundation for developing great minds as well as a source for ingenuity and innovation.

In his speech, the class of 2015 valedictorian, Alexander Yuen, stressed the love of family and friends as the most important factor for helping him to develop into the person he is today.

“We have all been young lions,” he said. “At some point in our life full of zealous but ultimately empty pride. Our parents and guardians, friends and loved ones have tempered us to be the better people we are today.”

The ceremony’s keynote address was given by Hobson, director of companies such as the Starbucks Company, Dreamworks Animation, Groupon and the Estee Lauder Company, who overcame numerous obstacles to become the president of money marketing firm Ariel Investments, which holds more than $10 billion in its portfolio.

Hobson compared her journey to success, as well as the challenges facing the graduating class, to the story of skydiver Felix Baumgartner, who jumped out of a lightweight space capsule 24 miles from the Earth.

“The world may look bigger than it ever looked,” she said. “And you may feel smaller than you have ever felt.”

The solution to this fear, according to Hobson, is bravery.

“Bravery allows us to push beyond the boundaries that hold us back from living the lives that we want,” she said.

Hobson continued to emphasize the importance of bravery as a means of succeeding in everything at life, including love.

“A lot of graduation speeches will encourage you to be passionate about something,” she emphasized. “I am going to encourage you to be passionate about someone.”

In reference to her husband, Star Wars director and USC alumnus George Lucas, Hobson noted that love has provided her with a soul mate and a friend — and she encouraged students to find someone who can do the same for them.

“It took me a long time to be as brave in my personal life as I was in my professional life,” she emphasized. “That’s because to be brave in love, you must open yourself up to the possibility of heartbreak.”

Despite her fear, Hobson took the plunge and said that she realized that bravery continued to be the key for finding purpose and happiness in all things.

“That is my hope for you,” Hobson said. “That you will be brave and you will be loved.”

Varun Soni, dean of Religious Life, opened the main ceremony, with a speech about finding significance in life. Taking inspiration from a 75-year longitudinal psychological study, he said that the purpose of life is not found in fame or monetary success.

“The researchers concluded the same thing that four young lads from Liverpool told us nearly 50 years ago,” Soni said. “All you need is love.”

President C. L. Max Nikias urged students to go into the future, not with a spirit of fear — but with bravery and excitement.

“What is uncertainty but the beginning of a great adventure?” Nikias asked graduates.

Following the main ceremony, graduates attended satellite ceremonies depending on their major hosted by the various schools on campus.