Emelia Roberts graduates with a degree in radio TV film with certificates in music and multimedia journalism, Roberts has been behind the scenes at the university’s past four commencement ceremonies, helping things run smoothly as a student marshal and event assistant. Now, she’ll be front and center as a student speaker for the morning Spring Commencement ceremony.

Here are her prepared remarks from Saturday’s morning commencement ceremony:

My fellow graduates, we are all here today because we are brave, strong, and determined to follow our dreams.
I started my college journey at a different university on a more “practical” path because I thought my dream career was impossible to achieve. The haters and higher ups loved to remind me that there’s no money in the arts, and for some reason, I loved to listen. I wanted to make people smile, so I thought I’d become a dentist.

One chemistry class later, I realized three things:
1. I am horrendous at science.
2. People REALLY don’t like going to the dentist. Who would’ve thought?
3. You can’t make someone else smile until you make yourself happy first.

So, I followed the yellow brick road to UWO, and embraced what truly makes me happy—creating, performing, and connecting with people. Luckily, I was in the perfect place to do just that. UWO changed my life.

It gave me a community when I needed it most. It challenged me with seemingly impossible projects and deadlines—ones that made me question all of my life choices at 3 a.m.—but then rewarded me when I somehow pulled off the impossible.

It made me a better leader and a better writer, thanks to the amazing RTF, Journalism and Music professors who pushed me to grow.

It made me a better friend, a better teammate and a better person to work with. It taught me how to juggle everything—school, film shoots, work, family—without completely losing my mind.

Most importantly, UWO helped me satisfy my weird. I grew up singing ABBA with my mom, watching old westerns with my dad, bird watching with my stepdad, and being an annoying attention seeking little sister to my siblings. So naturally, I was destined to be a little eccentric.

But here? I found my people. UWO introduced me to like-minded weirdos who not only accepted my quirks but matched them with their own. I found my niche, and I couldn’t be more grateful for that.

And I know I’m not alone in that feeling.

No matter what our majors are—whether we spent our time writing, filming, designing, solving equations, or memorizing endless definitions of business jargon—we’ve all grown in ways we never expected.

We’ve learned how to handle stress (kind of).

We’ve mastered the art of pulling all-nighters.

We’ve had professors who inspired us, classmates who became lifelong friends, and moments that reminded us why we chose this path in the first place.

And let’s be honest—we’ve all had those moments where we thought, “Am I really going to make it to graduation?”

Maybe it was during finals week. Maybe it was while sprinting across campus because you accidentally parked on the entirely wrong side of school. Maybe it was when you realized you had three group projects due on the same day, and for some reason, you were the only one in the group doing any of the work. Maybe it was the end of the first day of semester and you realized you walked around the whole day with your skirt tucked into your undies. Or maybe that one is just me.

But here we are. We did it.

And now, as we step into the next chapter of our lives, the truth is—we’re all still figuring it out. Some of us have jobs lined up, some of us have grad school ahead, and some of us are still staring into the abyss of Handshake and LinkedIn job listings wondering what on earth we just spent four years preparing for.

But if there’s one thing UWO has taught us, it’s that we are capable of more than we ever thought possible.

So, let’s take that same courage we had walking into our first class and bring it with us.

Let’s be bold, take risks, and chase the things that set our souls on fire—whether that’s in an office, on a stage, behind a camera, or somewhere we haven’t even dreamed of yet.

Because if there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s this: life is too short to play it safe.

Congratulations, Class of 2025! We did it!