U of A Commencement speaker, adventurer urges graduates to be climbers, not campers
More than 6,000 graduates and more than 39,000 guests attended the university's 161st Commencement on Friday, packing Arizona Stadium up to the nosebleeds.
Chris Richards/University Communications
A life of adventuring has helped Erik Weihenmayer realize that there are three types of people in this world: Quitters, campers and climbers.
Weihenmayer is a climber. A world-renowned adventurer, he's best known for becoming the first blind person to summit Mount Everest. He's the only blind climber to ascend the highest peaks on each continent, known as the Seven Summits. He's also climbed frozen waterfalls in Nepal and Canada, volcanoes in Ecuador and Chile, and the towering cliffs of the Italian Dolomites. In 2014, he kayaked the entire 277 miles of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
"Climbers are a rare group, and if I could see, I'd be looking at a lot of climbers out here," Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to summit Mount Everest, told U of A graduates in his Commencement address. "These are people who continue to figure out a way to grow and evolve and explore and challenge themselves every day of their lives until the day they die."
Chris Richards/University Communications
When he addressed the University of Arizona Class of 2025 at the university's 161st Commencement on Friday, Weihenmayer didn't waste any time talking about quitters, since there weren't any in attendance. Campers, he said, start out climbing with excitement and hope but lose belief in themselves as they encounter adversity.
"Climbers are a rare group, and if I could see, I'd be looking at a lot of climbers out here," Weihenmayer told a packed Arizona Stadium. "These are people who continue to figure out a way to grow and evolve and explore and challenge themselves every day of their lives until the day they die."
But Weihenmayer also relates to the campers, he said. When he became blind from a rare eye disease in middle school, he despaired about the help he needed to get around and about the joy he could hear his classmates having without him.
"Going blind was scary, but not fully living – well, that was terrifying," he said.
Not long after losing his vision, a group offering to take blind children rock climbing offered Weihenmayer his first taste of a "no-barriers life."
Weihenmayer said one thing hasn't changed about climbing for him after nearly 40 years and countless ascents– the fear that comes with "reaching," or going out on a limb to see what's possible. It will always be scary, but climbers do it anyway, Weihenmayer said.
"Climbers understand that life is an ongoing, never-ending process of reaching out to the darkness when we don't know what we'll find," he said.
More than 6,000 graduates and more than 39,000 guests attended Friday's ceremony, packing Arizona Stadium up to the nosebleeds.
U of A President Suresh Garimella, presiding over his first Commencement since assuming the presidency in October, conferred about 9,000 bachelor's, master's, doctoral and professional degrees at the ceremony.
Weihenmayer also received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the U of A College of Education.
Chris Richards/University Communications
In his opening remarks, Garimella said the occasion represented a set of promises from the U of A to both the graduates and the world at large.
"No matter what the stage for you will be, whether it's graduate school, a career or other paths, your alma mater is here to support you and root for your success," Garimella said. "And you, our graduates, are part of the promise we've made to our communities. Whatever you go on to do, you carry the university's promise to be a force for good."
The event also included remarks by Regent Fred DuVal of the Arizona Board of Regents, Interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Ron Marx, college deans, Associated Students of the University of Arizona President Adriana Grijalva, Graduate and Professional Student Council President Jeremy Bernick and others.
Jessica Retis, director and professor in the School of Journalism, gave the ceremony's greeting in Spanish. Tori Johnson, a 2025 graduate from the Eller College of Management and member of the Tohono O'odham Nation, delivered the university's Land Acknowledgement.
Seven graduating seniors were recognized for their outstanding achievements and contributions during the ceremony. Four honorary degree recipients and an Alumni Achievement Award winner were also recognized.
Weihenmayer, at the close of his remarks, rattled off a list of wicked problems that face society – a changing climate, war, poverty, pandemics, food deserts, hate speech. To solve these problems will require a certain drive – an alchemy, Weihenmayer called it, found in those who dare to be climbers.
"I think the world is crying out for alchemy, it's begging for it," he said. "And you're the alchemists. You are the world's best hope for alchemy."
