AMHERST — Change is a theme common enough at college commencements — a beginning and an end. But for the UMass Amherst class of 2025, change seemed more pressing and obvious when they received their diplomas Friday night.

The expansion of artificial intelligence, a post-Covid world, remote work, and a foggy future with regards to national and international events made change the thing to grapple with for both graduates and speakers at the undergraduate commencement, with more than 6,000 students receiving degrees and 20,000 in attendance at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.

Collin Dougherty is a communications major heading to Florida soon for a job interview for a remote position as a PR representative. He was feeling the wave of change.

Dougherty said Friday’s event was a clear shift from his high school graduation four years ago. At that time he said he wouldn’t have imagined being in a place where almost nobody is talking about Covid.

“It’s feeling kinda surreal after high school graduation which was pretty much canceled during all masks. So it’s nice. It’s like a refreshing, positive outcome. I didn’t really expect it.”

As for remote work, he said, “there’s a lot of talk about remote workers and Gen Z — like how they don’t really have what it takes to be in the office all the time.

“Personally I’m cool with it. I’m sure that older generations are going to look back and be like ‘typical, typical young kids,’” he said.

The day’s speakers honed in on the message of embracing the changing global landscape, among them UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes.

“The education you have received at UMass Amherst has prepared you to succeed in a wide range of fields,” he told the graduates. “But perhaps, more importantly, it has prepared you to be successful not just in today’s reality, but in tomorrow’s reality, because change will always happen.

“I want you to remember though, that change is not just something that happens to you, but something that happens because of you,” said Reyes.

The commencement speaker was David Korins, an award-winning set designer and creative director who has worked across theater, film, television and is known for his work on Broadway hits including Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and Beetlejuice.

Korins shared how he was taken back when at a creative summit in Abu Dhabi recently.

There it was said that, “We have entered into the time of machine supremacy.”

Ouch, he said, especially for people like him in a creative field.

“But what are you going to do about it?” Korins asked graduates.

Instead of being “pitted against” AI innovations, he said, “recruit it.”

Using the metaphor of a football field, as the students sat over the UMass home turf , he asked the graduates, “How can we see this as something that takes our capacity 75 yards further down the field, closer to our goals?”

He went on to say that, “It’s not about being fearless, it’s about being 1% more curious than afraid.”

In the moment

Despite the turbulent changes, grads were feeling the same emotions that come with the occasion — excited for jobs, ready for the summer, expecting to miss friends, and trying to take in the day.

Before the ceremony, the trees outside the stadium shielded students on the 80 degree day as friends adjusted each other’s stoles, took pictures, and had their last conversations as undergrads.

There, Connecticut natives Devin Sideleau and Liam Arnason mutually described the day as “bittersweet.”

“It never really hits you during your four years,” Sideleau said. “It’s different when you’re actually here and experiencing it. It’s just you think about all your memories.”

Highs from his UMass experience included, “memories with my friends and trips, and also the academic highs — you know, overcoming difficult projects where you’re spending countless hours in the library working on something late nights and finally overcoming it.”

His low: “Being away from home. It’s a big adjustment moving away especially as a freshman and living in dorms and things like that. So overcoming that is also actually a high if anything,” he said.

Arnason said he’s feeling all the same emotions. He added that, “I am really happy I get to see all my family and all my friends together. We’re all gonna get together tomorrow after our Isenberg ceremony.”

Both will be working full-time at accounting firms in the coming months.

Samira Lopez had already been at the engineering school graduation earlier in the day. She will be going to grad school at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2026.

She doesn’t know how she’s going to use her gap year, but she has a vision of her future.

“I’m in mechanical engineering, and I am also getting a master’s in biomedical engineering and the hope is to work on prosthetics and orthopedics and stuff — that’s the hope and dream,” she said.

Antoine DeRosa of Avon said his past four years have been “crazy” due to changing his major three times.

He had majored in math, special ed, and finally sociology, “and I still don’t really know what I want to do,” he said.

“It’s just exciting to be in this moment,” he said. “Looking back, I think a high for me was definitely that I’m not the smartest person, but I finished four semesters on the dean’s list.”

He will soon be testing for a Massachusetts teachers license, and will fill in his time this summer by working.

Housemates Hanna Leonard and Lauren Hannafin and their friends are graduation traditionalists, but Friday caught them off guard nonetheless.

“We’ve done all the traditional things,” said Leonard, a business management and dance double major from southern Connecticut. She will be taking a 45-minute train into New York City to pursue dance full-time this summer.

“We did the photo shoot on campus, the champagne spray outside of the library — that was really fun,” she said. “We’ve been going out of town with all of our friends and just seeing everybody, which has been really sad. It’s going to be the last time I see some of them, so definitely really sad.”

Hannafin, a dance and education double major, said that, “Well, we almost forgot it was graduation today. We were scrambling a little bit. It was just like an average day. We were just cooking chicken nuggets and cleaning the apartment. Then we were like, oh, we should probably get ready.”

For her, the change still isn’t quite real. “We’re walking around here and it still hasn’t hit me,” she said.

The student address was given by David Dagenais of Agawam, who reminded students of their very first weekend as undergrads — a 105 degree mid-August weekend with many climbing 20 flights of stairs in the Southwest Apartments.

A Commonwealth Honors College student who is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, molecular biology and psychology on the neuroscience track, Dagenai said that, “after quickly shewing away our parents, we’re thrown into this new world.”

That world though, he said, will now become a memory.

“Nostalgia, the past, stories — they all exist as a beautiful and persistent reminder to do one thing: reflect on the past but always appreciate the present moment,” he told his peers.

As the procession formed, Vikki Clifford found herself at the front of it, holding the sign for her major: education. She was with her friends and fellow education majors Katie Bickford, Taylor Marshal and Nick Tellier.

At that moment, just a short while before processing in, Clifford’s biggest concern was not tripping.

Bickford and Marshall met each other in their first college class, and took their last together. On Friday, they were in line together.

Mary and Brett McCarthy were among the 20,000 in the stands. They came from the eastern side of the state to celebrate their daughter.

“We’re so proud of our daughter’s accomplishment,” Brett McCarthy said.

Mary McCarthy said that, “She knows she’s going to have to work the rest of her life so she can take a month off and enjoy the Cape,” before she gets a job in environmental engineering.

Joe Restivo, grandfather of business graduate Michael Schneider, made the way up from New Jersey, and expressed pride and excitement for his grandson, despite feeling “warm” in the bleachers.

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.