'Pioneers' bid college adieu

LDS Business College commencement activities Thursday were a combination of the new and the familiar.

The new was a class of graduates educated at both the college's former Mansion Campus, its home for more than 40 years, and its new location at Triad Center. The familiar was a class of graduates beginning their post-college lives.

"In a sense, you have been pioneers," Presiding Bishop H. David Burton of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns the college, told the graduates. "You have helped work out a few of the kinks, I'm sure. You have been the transition group between the old and the new."

The 120th commencement at Assembly Hall on Temple Square featured 289 students receiving a total of 492 degrees and certificates.

College President Stephen K. Woodhouse urged the students to continue their learning and strive for "excellence in study" throughout their lives.

"Do not get caught up in thinking that excellence means being better than someone else. If you think about excellence in terms of comparisons, then you will limit your ability and your potential. Celestial excellence does not put you in a competition with anyone but yourself," Woodhouse said.

"The reason I believe excellence in study is so critical is because of your ability to positively impact your family, your profession, your neighborhood and your church, and it will grow exponentially as you excel in what you study and in the degree of your disciple scholarship."

Woodhouse urged the students to have "power in faith," including the incorporation of three characteristics.

"If we can develop those three attributes — gratitude, sacrifice, trust — we can develop real power through faith, and combining that power in faith with excellence in study produces strength and ability beyond your current capacity," he said.

Bishop Burton described the graduates as "serious students who have made the most of the opportunity you have pursued" and said they should feel joy, satisfaction and "elevated self-worth" for their accomplishments.

"Across the country, less than four out of every 10 who commence some type of educational experience stay with that program until they have completed the requirements for graduation. Fewer than four out of 10. You are among the very elect. You have successfully completed what you have set out to do," he said.

Bishop Burton said the graduates now will go different directions in life, but he encouraged them to continue to pursue excellence. He noted that " the small and simple objectives of life, accomplished one or two at a time, will cumulatively add to a life filled with joy and a life filled with satisfaction — a life that has contributed in a major way to the betterment of mankind."