University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella conferred about 10,000 bachelor's, master's, doctoral and professional degrees at the university's 162nd Commencement on Friday.

Garimella reminded the Class of 2026 and their loved ones who had packed Casino Del Sol Stadium that Success for Every Student is a personal journey – and that it shouldn't end at graduation.

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"Graduation means different things to different people: the achievement of a longstanding goal, a transition from one phase of life to another, or simply the first step to unlocking your aspirations on an exciting journey," Garimella said. "The one thing it does not mean is an end to your education. You will always be asking questions, and you will always be learning."

The event also included remarks by Regent Cecilia Mata of the Arizona Board of Regents, Chief Academic Officer and Provost Patricia Prelock, Associated Students of the University of Arizona President Adriana Grijalva, Graduate and Professional Student Council President Mourad Abdennebi and others.

Cisco Aguilar, a three-time alumnus of the University of Arizona with two degrees in business administration and a law degree who now serves as Nevada's secretary of state, received the Alumni Achievement Award.

"The University of Arizona has given you more than just a degree. It has given you resilience, amazing friendships, and the mental ability to deal with questionable decisions of all sorts. Those skills are critical, and I'm grateful to have them," he said.

"Wherever you go, take a little bit of Tucson with you – the sunsets, the grit, the pride, and the deep, unshakeable belief that, yes, 100 degrees can feel like a nice day," Aguilar added.

Prelock, participating in her first U of A Commencement since taking the role, told students to lean into their "superpower" to listen and lead with compassion.

She also offered a bit of magic.

"I'm sure you have some thoughts about what you expected to learn during your college experience. But I would like you to consider how your ideas have actually been transformed," she said, pulling a blue cloth through her hand as it "transformed" to red. "By allowing yourself to explore knowledge and think differently, my hope for each of you is that you're leaving the university a better place than you found it."

Seven graduating seniors were recognized for their outstanding achievements and contributions during the ceremony. Four honorary degree recipients, in addition to Schmidt, were also recognized. 

Commencement address

In 1982, well before Eric Schmidt became the CEO and chairman of Google, TIME magazine announced a Person of the Year that wasn't a person at all.

It was the computer. 

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Schmidt, who had graduated from the University of California, Berkeley that year with a doctorate in computer science, had helped build the personal computer. And there was no question at the time, he said, that he and his colleagues had built something for the greater good.

"In a sense, we thought that we were adding stones to a cathedral of knowledge that humanity had been constructing for centuries," Schmidt said.

"But the world we built turned out to be more complicated than we had anticipated," Schmidt said, noting how computers and the internet are now often used not for good, but to divide and outrage.

Schmidt's memory from 44 years ago was really about the future, and graduates today face a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. Case in point, Schmidt noted: The architects of AI were TIME magazine's Person of the Year in 2025.

It made sense for graduates to be skeptical of an AI-driven world – even fearful, Schmidt said. But the future has not been decided, he said, and told graduates not to surrender their agency by believing it had been.

The graduates themselves would be the ones to help shape AI, he said, and urged them to rise to the occasion.

"The future does not simply arrive," he said. "It gets built – in laboratories, in dormitories, in start-ups, in classrooms, in legislatures. And the people building it will be you and people like you. The question is not whether artificial intelligence will shape the world. It will. The question is whether you will help shape artificial intelligence."

The opportunities afforded by AI abound, Schmidt said. He pointed to a field where people excel every day on the U of A campus – astronomy. Researchers in Steward Observatory, he noted, are helping Schmidt's foundation build Lazuli, a collection of telescopes more powerful than Hubble.

Near the close of his remarks, Schmidt also had advice for any graduates left questioning what they could bring to the table as AI becomes more powerful. Their answer, he said, was all the things that make them human: Their judgment, conscience, perspective and morality.

"Protect what makes you human," he said. "And I do not mean in the abstract. I mean specifically and concretely, in the small decisions you make about what you build, how you build it, and for whom you build it."