UCLA Ed&IS held its first ceremony for undergraduates in the Education and Social Transformation major and minor programs, as well as a ceremony to honor graduate students.
The UCLA School of Education and Information Studies celebrated Commencement on June 14, honoring 265 undergraduates, including students in the Education Studies and Information and Media Literacy minor programs and candidates for a bachelor’s degree from the Education and Social Transformation major program for the first time in a their own ceremony, followed by the commencement exercises for Ed&IS graduate students.
Fifty-six graduate students in the UCLA Department of Information Studies achieved their MLIS or P.h.D, and 218 graduate students in the UCLA Department of Education accomplished their M.Ed. or Ph.D. in specialties including Educational Leadership, Principal Leadership, Teacher Education, and Transformative Coaching and Leadership. Within the UCLA Education cohort, Qiana Star Duru, Han Young Lee, and Lauren Fischbacher achieved their joint P.h.D in Special Education through a partnership between UCLA and CSU Los Angeles; and 18 of the 80 Teacher Education candidates achieved competency in California’s Bilingual Authorization Spanish Program (BASP).
Student awards for the undergraduate Class of 2025 included the George F. Kneller Prize, which was bestowed on Muaathah Abdullah, Yuricela Rosas, Laila Wheeler, and Christine Zhou, candidates for the B.A. in the Education and Social Transformation. The Kneller Prize is a $3,000 award that recognizes undergraduate students who have distinguished themselves academically by demonstrating exceptional achievement in the program.
The Department of Information Studies recognized Ana Elizabeth Wright, a candidate for the master’s degree in library and information studies, with the Chancellor’s Service Award, and Emily Doran and Ezra Loeb were honored with the department’s MLIS Award for Advancement of the Profession.
The Outstanding Dissertation Awards from the Department of Education honored Liliana Martinez-Kaufman, a Ed.D. candidate, for her work on, “In Their Own Words and On Their Own Terms: Lifelong Learning Trajectories of Community College Noncredit Adult High School Diploma Students,” and Christine Roberts, a Ph.D. candidate in Education, for her research on, “Examining Teacher Learning within Mathematics Professional Learning Communities in Relation to District Vision and Policy.”
In her welcoming remarks at the undergraduate commencement, Wasserman Dean Christina (Tina) Christie highlighted UCLA’s history as a school for teachers and its very first undergraduate ceremony as a normal school, with 28 students who graduated in 1923 at UCLA’s original Vermont Avenue campus.
“This inaugural class marked the beginning of UCLA’s tradition of academic excellence and commitment to training future educators,” Christie said. “Your graduation celebrates our roots as a teachers’ college and its foundational role in shaping the number one public university and California’s educational landscape.”
Christie noted that many of the undergraduates completed high school and entered UCLA during the last stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and previously never had an opportunity to take part in an in-person graduation ceremony, due to the remote learning environment at that time. She also acknowledged the support of family and loved ones who support the graduates, and the challenges of the times in which they are entering a world outside of academic life.
“Today is a recognition not just of what you’ve achieved during your time at UCLA but also of what you have overcome to get here,” Dean Christie said. “You have persisted, adapted, and found your community and calling during your time as a student, even when the world seemed uncertain, and the future looked unclear.
“It goes without saying that you are crossing the stage in a remarkable moment in history. We are facing a time of deep global, national, and local unrest. Uncertainty seems to linger in every corner of society. We’re facing conflict and polarization, deep inequities, and ongoing climate disruption. For better or worse, we are also witnessing the rapid evolution of information and technology.
“We are living through a pivotal chapter in history. But there is one important thing that gives me so much hope. In fact, it gives all of us who are here today, hope. You are the authors of the next chapter… You have the skills to create bridges and right now, we need that more than ever. You understand that knowledge is not neutral – we cannot take for granted equity, access, and truth. Instead, we must put in the work to achieve these ideals each and every day, and we are depending on you.”
Student speakers, chosen prior to Commencement by their fellow graduates, included Laila Wheeler, who graduated cum laude from the Education and Social Transformation major program. She addressed her peers during the undergraduate ceremony, sharing the African philosophy of Ubuntu, which means, “I am because we are.”
“Ubuntu is the profound idea of our common humanity… the notion that we would not be who we are without the impact of others, the community who raised us, and those who believed in us when we didn’t believe in ourselves,” she said. “It is the fact that we can go far as a collective, and unity rather than division is the key to social transformation.”
Wheeler recapped the experiences of her fellow students in the undergraduate major and noted that their exposure to education and its policies at local, state, and national levels will enable them to, “… become the educators, policymakers, administrators, and changemakers that the world so desperately needs now, more than ever.”
“We are all here today because we believe in the power of education,” she said. “We believe that every student deserves a chance to unleash their fullest potential, no matter their background. We dedicated years mastering how to create equitable schools, just governments, and engaged communities that uplift future generations and deconstruct educational barriers that held us back for far too long.
“Class of 2025, I’m here to tell you that we are the change we seek,” said Wheeler. “We are celebrating a milestone, not just for the end of an era but the beginning of a legacy. A legacy to inspire the Black student who was wrongfully funneled into the school-to-prison pipeline; the neurodivergent student who just wants to be understood; the immigrant student who struggles to keep up with a foreign language in class; and the queer student who is taught that their identity is a crime. We may have been one of these students at some point in time. Our dreams may have been deferred but now, we are a dream realized.”
During the graduate student ceremony, Dean Christie expressed her congratulations for the Class of 2025, and its resilience amid the national and global challenges of federal actions, California’s wildfires, and global war.
“Today, we celebrate not only your academic achievements but also your steadfast dedication to advancing knowledge, equity, and the public good, in times of profound uncertainty,” she said. “Recognize your great power to shape a future rooted in empathy, courage, and collective responsibility. Our most sacred institutions, those in which many of us work, including schools and libraries, are in jeopardy. But all of us on this stage today know that you are more than equipped to handle these challenges and because of this, when I look out at you, I feel immense hope.
“You chose this path because you know the importance of asking the hardest questions, including how we learn, how we share knowledge, and how we build systems that create and sustain equity,” said Christie. “I trust that you not only have clarity about the challenges our world is facing but you also have what it takes to address those challenges. My confidence in this … is what fuels my optimism for the better days ahead.”
Aimee Perez, a candidate for the MLIS degree from the Department of Information Studies, and Amy-Marie Rivera, a Ed.D. candidate from the Department of Education, delivered the student remarks to their fellow graduates and audience.
In her speech, Perez acknowledged those students, family members, and loved ones who were absent from the ceremonies, with a statement in both English and Spanish.
“There are hundreds of graduation ceremonies occurring this month throughout Los Angeles County,” she said. “UCLA alone is hosting approximately 70 commencement ceremonies this weekend. It’s meant to be a culmination of the enduring efforts and sacrifices made by students and their support systems. However, we know that many of those impacted by the compassionless actions of the federal government and its agencies are noticeably absent from these celebrations.
“We hear you, we see you, we miss you, we fight for you – because no person or institution is exempt from upholding and striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every human being, especially the most vulnerable.”
Perez shared her experience around joining her MLIS cohort and her apprehensions around becoming a graduate student and a UCLA student.
“To my surprise, I’ve learned less about how to fit in to my idea of what I thought those things were supposed to mean, and more about how to have my academic and professional work be a genuine reflection of who I am and where I come from. I credit this understanding to my library and information studies peers, instructors, mentors, and supervisors, who have shown me the ways in which they bring their whole selves into their own work.
“This community has been and will continue to be part of something bigger than ourselves,” said Perez. “We remain steadfast in our morals and learn how to lean on each other for support under some of the most challenging and discouraging circumstances. But we persevere because information is power, and the preservation and dissemination of knowledge has the ability to aid in liberation.”
Rivera acknowledged her father’s drive to teach himself anything he needed or wanted to learn, despite his lack of a formal education, and how it instilled in her a commitment to education.
“In many ways, my dad was my first teacher,” she said, “and even though he would never use the word, ‘leadership,’ he lived it. He showed it through the way that he invited me into his world and nurtured my curiosity and love of learning.
“I believe that many of us have someone or something that has helped lift us up… someone who has inspired or encouraged us to arrive at this very moment,” said Rivera. “Now, we can become that person … for someone else. That same spirit of inquiry my dad instilled in me is part of what led me to UCLA’s Educational Leadership Program… to reflect on the kind of leader and educator that I want to be; to ask what legacy will I leave behind. I gained more than theories. I found tools, but I also found a community. It helped me shape a vision for how I want to contribute, and it confirmed for me that leadership isn’t just about a title. It starts with intention. It’s about self-reflection and truly seeing others.”
The undergraduate degrees were conferred by Dean Christie and Professors Cecilia Rios-Aguilar, chair of the UCLA Department of Education; Todd Franke, interim chair of the UCLA Department of Information Studies; and José-Felipe Martinez, professor of education and vice chair for undergraduate programs. The graduate conferring of degrees was presided over by Dean Christie and Professors Rios-Aguilar and Franke. The Alma Mater, “Hail to the Hills of Westwood” was sung at the undergraduate ceremony by Alice Chiang, and at the graduate ceremony by Gabrielle O’Leary, a candidate for the master of education degree in Principal Leadership. In addition, a mariachi ensemble from Alexander Hamilton High School entertained the audience prior to the graduate commencement ceremony.
Both ceremonies were livestreamed on YouTube; recordings of both the undergraduate and graduate ceremonies are now available.
Visit this link for recordings of the 2025 SEIS Commencement ceremonies, as well as the official programs and photo galleries for both events.