The College of Fine Arts and Communications Convocation Ceremonies Celebrate the Graduating Class of 2025
The BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications (CFAC) celebrated the class of 2025 in convocations on April 25. The college held three separate ceremonies for the academic areas of Communications, Art, Design, Music, Dance and Theatre and Media Arts in the BYU Music Building Concert Hall.
Dean Ed Adams opened the convocation ceremonies by congratulating the graduates for their academic achievements.
After the presentation of graduates, Dean Adams noted the significance of this year as both the 150th anniversary of BYU and noted the recent 100th anniversary of the College of Fine Arts and Communications. “For nearly a century, this college has fostered creativity and innovation. Our alumni — artists, storytellers, musicians, designers and communicators — have inspired the world. We invite everyone to visit cfac100.byu.edu as we honor the past, celebrate the present and envision the future.”
Each ceremony featured student presentations and musical numbers from graduates selected to represent their respective academic areas.
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS
In her message “These Shoes Were Made for Graduating,” mass communications master’s student Kailey Thompson shared that her time in the School of Communications has allowed her to walk in many pairs of metaphorical shoes — those of a public relations professional, researcher, writer, theorist and advocate.
She acknowledged that each graduate was about to embark on a new adventure that would lead each of them in many different directions. “Some of us might know where we are headed, some of us may be deciding as we go and some of us may be scared to even start the journey.”
Thompson shared that her communications journey hasn’t been without difficulty. “In times of hardship, it is easy to wish away the obstacles before us,” Thompson said. “My feet ached, I would get tired and there were times I felt alone. It was difficult to make decisions to follow a path when it was unclear where I would ultimately end up.”
However, difficult paths also amplify one’s capacity to make a difference and Thompson encouraged communications graduates of each discipline to fully embrace that newfound capacity. “I believe that we can draw upon the strength, resilience and knowledge that we have gained during our time here at BYU to choose to make a positive change in the world around us.”
Performing “Introduction” and “Young Juliet” from “Romeo and Juliet” by Sergei Prokofiev, Michaela Lynn West, a music performance graduate with a focus in strings, played the viola while Molly Jane Smith, a music performance graduate with a focus in piano, played the piano.
Public relations graduate Alyssa Minor focused her speech — “Communicators Unlock Potential” — on how her childhood heroes have inspired her to shed light on the potential of others. Minor spent two years in the communications disorders major before her path at BYU eventually led her to the School of Communications.
Minor’s time in the public relations program took her to Ghana, where she worked with some of the same organizations she had discovered while working at BYU’s Ballard Center for Social Impact. This work caused her to reflect back on her childhood hero, Helen Keller and realize now her role model was actually Keller’s teacher Anne Sullivan, who taught Keller her first word (“water") on a pivotal day in 1887. “Anne Sullivan likely had no idea how the world would change because of that one day,” Minor said. “But her story reminds us of the power in helping others find their voice.”
Minor has done just that as a student firm director in the PR Intelligence Lab, where she worked alongside students to amplify the voices of people and organizations who have the potential to “lift the world.”
Minor concluded by encouraging her fellow graduates to not see the next steps — a job, internship or degree — as a safety net to catch them when they fall. “We’ve reached a cliff because we just spent the last four years of our lives developing wings!”
DEPARTMENTS OF DANCE, THEATRE AND MEDIA ARTS AND SCHOOL OF MUSIC
The student presentations in this session of convocation began with a performance by Tanner Jorden, a music performance graduate with an emphasis in piano. He performed Mazurka in A-Flat Major, Op. 50, No. 2 Etude in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 10, No. 4 by Frederic Chopin.
In her speech “Becoming One,” dance major Makeila Morgan shared a message of camaraderie and connection. As a first-generation college student of Tongan descent, Morgan said she felt out of place when she first arrived at BYU but quickly found community within the cultural dance program. “Learning movement that has lived on through generations of people and their families has been as precious to me as the cultural dances that live on through generations of my people and my family,” she said.
Having danced in both the International Folk Dance Ensemble and Living Legends companies, Morgan had opportunities to perform in festivals around the world where she met people of all different cultures and backgrounds. “These festivals are proof that we do not need to be afraid. It is proof that we can support each other, despite our differences,” she said.
Morgan views dance as a “two-way street” that allows strangers, friends and family to communicate with each other and build relationships. “Time and time again, I have witnessed the miracle of dance bringing people together and offering a space for us to connect and feel one.”
Media arts graduate Erin Gibson also reflected on the impact of community in her speech “The Art of Becoming: Lessons for Film and Life.” Though she initially came to BYU pursuing a degree in biology, a meaningful experience with Doctrine and Covenants 8:4, led her to a different path. Gibson ended up embracing her artistic roots in BYU’s media arts program.
Gibson shared that at BYU she learned to not only trust but also enjoy the process, from screenwriting to editing. “We all have life goals to become more than what we are,” she said. “Those goals are going to take multiple drafts to achieve and there will be joy in that process.”
Gibson said that studying film has taught her that Heavenly Father (“the most valuable member of my crew”) knows us individually and that He cares about what we care about. Gibson shared that often in the film industry, who you know is often more important than what you know. But she has discovered that in both film and life, human connection is the most valuable. “We need to care for each other, to bask in community at the price of inconvenience.”
DEPARTMENTS OF ART AND DESIGN
“To make art is to confront the unknown. It is an act of faith,” said graduate Emily Nicole White Tousley. She graduated with an art BFA and teaching license. In her speech “Artfully Traversing the Unknown,” she explored the ways in which BYU has helped her creatively engage with new mediums.
White Tousley began by explaining her own photography: “I never know what my final product will look like when I press the shutter button, but not knowing enables me to listen and learn.” She also described the way she feels when looking at the work of her colleagues, including an untitled piece by Karla Grandy and “Remedy” by Payden Mouritsen. These pieces do not tell the audience what to think; instead, their restraint from certainty invites viewers to likewise grapple with the unknown.
Along with these explorations in new mediums, White Tousley also explained that she is navigating uncharted territory regarding her future career. “Like other members of my graduating class,” she said, “I am standing before a blank canvas bigger than I have ever faced before. Nevertheless, art has taught me that I can become more than I am if I collaborate with uncertainty instead of running from it.”
Animation major Diego Josiah Quintanilla Meza found career inspiration from his father, who wanted to become an animator. Since joining the BYU animation program in 2022, Meza had the opportunity to work on two student capstone short films, including the Student Emmy award-winning “Student Accomplice.”
In his speech “Keyframes of My Life,” Meza explained that the Spanish phrase “un animador” means both “an animator” and “a clown.” Meza believes that he is “un animador” in both senses of the word: “Often, in order to bring life to a cartoon, one must become a cartoon.”
“I began my animation journey by trying to give personality to a simple bouncing ball,” he said. Then, Meza incorporated concepts such as clear posing, moving organic objects in arcs, and exaggerating both movement and personality in his design process. “The more I learned, the more detailed and complex my animations could become — and the more I have become.”
He also recognized the impact other people have had on his educational career and he has seen that influence mimicked in the animation process. “In a way, animation has taught me that we are all the product of the hopes, dreams and struggles of each influential person in our lives,” Meza said. “Because of them we become more. Because of them, ‘soy un animador.’”
After Meza’s remarks, Anna Judd Shepherd, music education major, performed Nocturne in G-Flat Major by Pius Cheung on the marimba.
“BYU is the place that taught many of us resilience and how to handle rejection,” Clara Grace Swenson, industrial design major, said in her speech titled, “On Community and Camaraderie.” “It’s where we’ve gotten to know our adult selves. It’s where we’ve celebrated our biggest wins and gotten back on our feet after some of the hardest losses. It’s helped many of us define our relationship with God and figure out where we fit in the grand scheme of everything.”
Swenson hopes to take what she has learned at BYU into her future career and give back as an alum. She shared how much support she has felt from interacting with alumni during her undergraduate years. “Transitioning today from students to alumni, we’re joining a cohort of people who have grown from the same roots. I hope we remember our shared BYU experience and continue the tradition of giving back to future generations,” she said. “It’s our turn to go forth and serve, lifting those who come after us.”
As she concluded her remarks, she encouraged graduates to represent the best of BYU as they go out into the world. “Yes, the world needs our creativity and our ideas, but more importantly it needs our character.”
Art graduate Lizzie Windsor’s speech, “Making Art and Building Community,” hinged on one striking truth: “Art is who you know.” By reflecting on what she had learned in her last semester — especially from coordinating her final show on campus — Windsor realized that she does know people in the art world.
She reflected on how her peers Brenna Cooper, Karla Grandy, Ember Englis and Jeremiah Parkin helped her grow as both a person and an artist in her time as a BYU student. She points to the risks taken in their artwork, the invaluable feedback they provided, and how consistently they showed up to support her.
Windsor said that these connections came through difficult experiences and mutual vulnerabilities: “In this department, I have met people who I feel safe around. I can be vulnerable with them. I can do this because I have been met with kindness.”
Throughout her speech, Windsor admitted that she is scared to graduate; she is sad to leave her peers, mentors and beloved studio behind. “It turns out that I don’t need to be scared to enter the art world because I am already in the art world. We make the art world through the community that we build — the community that we have already been building together.”
Congratulations to the Class of 2025!
We want to celebrate you and your grads! Share your story with us here. Learn more about other CFAC grads here.
For the 2025 digital convocation program, FAQs, a message from the deanery and more, check out the CFAC convocation website.
To see more photos of graduates and the ceremonies, visit our full Facebook album.