Long before he became an All-Pro tight end in the NFL, Greg Olsen lined up on Green Tree Practice Fields as a scout team player for the Miami Hurricanes football team, facing a defense of future first-round draft picks as he strived to crack the starting lineup and, more importantly, continuously improve his game.
For Olsen, finish lines did not exist. Instead, it was a philosophy of “perpetual improvement,” a quest to “just get better, forever” that fueled his passion.
Olsen, who would go on to become a standout tight end for the Hurricanes, shared those words of advice with hundreds of the University of Miami’s newest graduates on Thursday during two undergraduate commencement exercises at the Watsco Center: a morning ceremony where about 555 graduates from the College of Engineering; the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science; and the School of Nursing and Health Studies received newly minted degrees; and an afternoon session where more than 850 students from the Patti and Allan Herbert Business School graduated.
“You arrive at this moment having completed something demanding and worthwhile,” University President Joe Echevarria, who graduated from the U in 1978, told students. “You gained knowledge here, but just as importantly, you developed habits, discipline, responsibility, resilience, and the ability to follow through. Those habits will serve you well in every chapter ahead.”
During his commencement remarks, Olsen told students that he did not have a “secret recipe that’s going to propel you into success and fortune.”
“The key is just to keep moving,” he said. “My life is not a snapshot of a given time where we are forever compared to others at the same moment. If that was what life was, in all those moments, I never would have been in the lead. I never would have been in first place. It was in these four years at UM that I experienced the lessons that changed my life forever.
“It’s the place where I started my journey into adulthood. The place where I met a pretty girl one day walking in the cafeteria. I had an uncanny ability to bump into her between classes,” Olsen recalled, going on to mention that the love of his life, whom he met on campus, is now his wife of 17 years and the mother of his three children.
Olsen’s playing days at the U, he told graduates, almost didn’t happen. A USA Today first-team All-American as a senior out of Wayne Hills High School in New Jersey, where his father coached football, Olsen originally committed to and enrolled at Notre Dame, following his older brother, Christian. But Olsen transferred to Miami shortly after, preferring the atmosphere in Coral Gables over South Bend, Indiana.
Yet, even after arriving at the U, he was filled with doubt. “I remember in those early days, I called home and told my dad, ‘I don’t think I’m ever going to play here.’ These guys were too good. We were coming off back-to-back national championship games. We were on top of the football world. First-round draft picks everywhere you looked. And as only a loving father could, his response was simple. He said, ‘Figure it out. You’re not transferring again.’”
That talk must have resonated with Olsen, for he would crack Miami’s starting lineup as a sophomore and finish a stellar collegiate career with 87 catches for 1,215 yards and six touchdowns. He would also earn a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice from the University.
Olsen credited Hurricanes head football coach Mario Cristobal for inspiring him. “I got to truly learn what it’s like, for the first time, to be pushed and demanded of by someone outside my family,” he said, describing Cristobal, who was an assistant coach at the U during Olsen’s collegiate career, as an “incredibly caring and motivating” mentor who saw in him something he did not see in himself.
“Most importantly, Mario taught me what playing football at Miami really meant: a relentless pursuit of reaching one’s potential. Get better forever. As a result, the foundation was laid for what my career would become. Now we all get to watch that relentless pursuit of greatness play out on the national stage. It feels good to stand here and say, ‘The U is back,” said Olsen, referring to Miami’s championship run under Cristobal during the College Football Playoffs.
The NFL came calling next. Olsen entered the league in 2007 as a first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears, a team fresh off a Super Bowl appearance. His career trajectory seemed set. But life, he told graduates, isn’t always a linear journey. “For me, it was quite the opposite,” he said, noting that after four years in Chicago, he was traded to the Carolina Panthers, one of the losingest teams in the NFL at the time.
His career, though, would skyrocket while in Carolina, an organization with which he had the greatest moments of his NFL career, setting records and playing in a Super Bowl.
It was also during his stint with the Panthers that he and his wife would face a challenge bigger than any he encountered on the football field. Their son, T.J., was born with a severe congenital heart defect. “T.J. would go on to have four open heart surgeries before he was 2 and a heart transplant at the age of 8 in a place that, now 15 years later, we still call home,” Olsen said. “I think sometimes it’s okay to just let life happen.”
After a 14-year career in the NFL, Olsen is now a two-time Sports Emmy Award-winning analyst for Fox Sports. He recently spoke at the funeral of his older brother, Christian, who died at age 43 after a long battle with brain cancer.
Olsen left graduates with these profound words of wisdom: “There’s nothing wrong with the concept of being great. Chasing greatness fuels everything we do. But, in your pursuit of greatness, don’t forget to also be good, because there’s a lot of value in being good as you worry about being great.”
Student Government President Ivana Liberatore, who graduated from the Miami Herbert Business School during the afternoon ceremony, told her fellow students that in the midst of the highly structured and fast-paced environment they experienced, “what was once similar became personal.”
“And my favorite part in that world built around spreadsheets, deliverables, and Google calendar invites is that somehow we found each other in moments that didn’t feel like résumé builders at all,” she said. “We made connections at breezeway tables, with music that, for some reason, plays 24/7. We spent just as many hours studying on the first floor of Richter as we did catching up with friends.”
Adriana Mastrangelo, who accepted her diploma from the School of Nursing and Health Studies during the morning ceremony, told her fellow graduates that they leave the U with more than degrees. “We leave with the experience of spending four years surrounded by people who challenged us, supported us, and reminded us that we are capable of more than we thought,” she said. “Wherever we go next—graduate programs, jobs, labs, hospitals, or somewhere we haven’t even dreamed of yet—I hope we keep working hard, keep learning from the people around us, and keep raising the bar.”
Many of the students from the School of Nursing and Health Studies who graduated on Thursday felt that the connections they made while studying with friends helped propel their success while earning a rigorous degree.
“I will miss us being together in Richter Library studying, but also sharing late night laughs,” said Shirley Alvarado, who was celebrating with her study group and other nursing grads Aleeza Haq, Loriann Anderson, and Britney Simon.
Fellow nursing graduate Leo Sutton traded hugs with friends and family while celebrating the end of his chapter in Miami. Sutton moved to South Florida with four friends from the military who all earned degrees from the University. Sutton is the last one to graduate and plans to start a job as a nurse in Charlotte in a few months.
“It’s been a lot of hard work and long hours studying, but it’s all been worth it,” he said.
His classmate Allen Gonzalez agreed.
“The support I received from the professors and my classmates here made it an amazing experience,” said Gonzalez, who was celebrating with his friends, Rudy Cruz and Treyvon Easterling, also nursing grads. “It was a difficult program, but the support I received really helped me get through it.
Rosenstiel School graduates Bridget Collins and Navith Ballines quickly became friends through their shared interest in the ocean and even spent a semester studying abroad in the Galápagos Islands, where they learned some helpful field research skills. Both are headed back to their hometowns in the Chicagoland area, and Collins plans to apply to graduate school, while Ballines is starting work at the city’s Brookfield Zoo doing education and community engagement.
Both loved the opportunity to do research during their time at the Rosenstiel School and said that attracted them to the school.
“There are so many research experiences for undergraduates here—Bridget got the opportunity to work in a lab, and I got that experience too,” said Ballines, who studied marine affairs and ecosystem science and policy.
Akshay Jha, a biomedical engineering major who graduated on Thursday, enjoyed his time so much at the U that he is staying on to earn his master’s degree. Jha, who is from Boston, said the University’s breadth of research labs attracted him to the school. He is taking a breath of relief from finishing finals before he returns in the fall.
“I’ve been able to do research, and the community atmosphere both among students and professors here has been very welcoming—everyone is more than willing to help,” he said.
Students graduating from the Miami Herbert Business School were conflicted about leaving the University. While many were excited to start jobs, they were also saddened to close this important, enjoyable period of their lives.
Marketing major Cole Gallup bonded quickly with his friends Jayden Haggerty and Nathan Cavanaugh through classes at the business school and their shared New England hometowns. All three said they were grateful for the time they had at the University.
“I’m proud of this achievement and excited to roll everything I have learned into my next chapter in life,” said Gallup, who will be working at an import company in Boston.
Sofia Koenigsberger, who studied business technology and management, also felt a sense of accomplishment for earning her degree on Thursday. She did not expect to get into the University and many of her high school friends did not leave her home state of North Carolina, so Koenigsberger was elated to graduate a semester early. This summer, she is moving to Atlanta to work as a consultant for Cognizant, a technology company.
“There were times when I thought that I wouldn’t make it, but I’ve had lots of great professors and classmates along the way that helped me,” she said.
Meanwhile, finance and business analytics majors Abdul Ahad Ahmad and Hamza Ijaz were roommates their first year. Both from Pakistan, the two navigated their new home together and quickly became close friends. They said it was their dream to attend college in the United States and feel fortunate for their temporary home in Coral Gables. This summer, Ijaz is moving to San Francisco to start working at Nomura, an investment banking firm in San Francisco, while Ahmad is moving to Washington, D.C., to work for Amazon.
“I’m sad to be leaving Miami because I know I could not have had these amazing four years anywhere else, but I am also really happy because I am ready to take on the real world now and to start a new chapter in my life,” Ijaz said.
