As University of Utah graduates embarked on separate paths Friday, the first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offered three guideposts to assist them: glance backward, reach outward and press forward.

"My young friends, may you understand the real meaning of commencement. You, here and now, with diploma in hand, commence the next stage of your lives," said President Thomas S. Monson, the U.'s commencement speaker. "Your future is bright, it is challenging, it awaits you. Safe journey, safe journey, to each of you."

The U. forwarded 7,166 graduates earning 7,671 degrees, with the most popular undergraduate degrees coming in mass communication, economics and political science. Of the graduates, 425 are from other nations.

"We do expect you to change the world in extraordinary ways," U. President Michael K. Young told the graduates.

Student speaker Sophia Q. Said plans on it.

The Pakistan native, one of the few college-educated women in what she called a nation of gender disparity, hopes to "contribute to the land I call home."

"Our world is a sad place today" with its wars, oppression and poverty. "We (have) come out as the fortunate college graduates ... we have the responsibility to do it, to make this world, our world, a better place."

President Monson was praised for his lifetime of service in receiving an honorary doctorate in business. Part of the U.'s class of 1948, President Monson worked as an advertising executive for the Deseret News and general manager of Deseret Press.

Called to the church's Quorum of the Twelve at age 36, President Monson posts a resume of varied community service and leadership, from membership on the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America and President Ronald Reagan's Task Force for Private Sector Initiatives to Brigham Young University's Board of Trustees.

But, he told the U.'s class of 2007: "I am — and always have been — proud to say that I graduated from this university."

Though the campus looks quite different, and the students are more technologically equipped than in his day, President Monson offered timeless advice.

Learn from, but don't live in, the past, and give thanks to those who have brought you along, he told the graduates. He encouraged them to reach out to others.

"No one has learned the meaning of living until he has surrendered his ego to the service of his fellow man," President Monson said.