AMHERST — Ben Hyland felt a bit nostalgic last Friday as he donned the Colonial-era costume he wore as a member of the University of Massachusetts Marching Band for the final time.
The 2016 graduate, a member of the band’s five-man honor guard, helped lead the processional for the 5,500 graduating seniors into McGuirk Alumni Stadium for the 146th commencement of the flagship campus.
When the processional finished, instead of picking up a clarinet as he usually does to play in the band, Hyland reached for his cap and gown.
The environmental conservation major from Hanover was in a reflective mood as he prepared to graduate. The highlight of his years as a student was being part of the marching band, he said. It took him to the Thanksgiving Parade in New York City in 2013 and to several UMass football games at Gillette Stadium.
Mostly, he said, “It taught me leadership and gave me a role in the community.”
By the time most of the speakers were done and the ceremonial switching of the mortarboard tassels from left to right was completed, half the class of 2016 was heading out the gates of the stadium as a steady rain fell during the soggy graduation ceremony.
Commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient Wayne Chang told the crowd about the disappointment his family — Taiwanese immigrants who came to Haverhill when he was 6 — felt when he dropped out of UMass a decade ago.
He was back last week to claim not a bachelor’s degree but an honorary doctorate in business in recognition of his success as a high-tech entrepreneur who is currently the director of product strategy at Twitter.
The unusual path to a college degree was in keeping with a life devoted to “hacking the system,” he said.
Chang added that one of his most memorable experiences as a student was being caught hacking into the computers of the UMass administration and being called in to meet with the director of security and a police officer.
Wearing Birkenstock sandals in the snow, he arrived at that meeting fearing the worst. To his relief, they said, “We won’t press charges, we just want to know how you did it.”
This turned out to be just one of the steps along a path that led to the message he wanted to leave with the class of 2016: “Make your own rules, hack the system and change the world.”
Victoria Jones of Ledyard, Connecticut, is on a more traditional path. She is graduating with a bachelor’s of science degree in nursing and has a job lined up with the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, where she will work in hematology and oncology.
“I love working with children and cancer,” she said. “It’s amazing to see what little fighters they are and I am honored to work with them and hopefully make a difference no matter what the outcome.”
She agreed with her fellow alumna Zakia Hankour of Harvard that the highlight of being at UMass was the close bonds they formed in the School of Nursing.
“It’s a really close major because we go through so much together,” said Hankour.
Andrea Hall was graduating together with Finn, a dog she has been training for the past year to be a service dog. “He lives with me and goes to all my classes,” said the management major.
Her canine companion can do things like turn lights on and off and recognize the signs of a panic attack. She earned three credits for her role as a trainer.
The other honorary degree recipient at Friday’s ceremony was Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from 2006 to 2011.
Bair taught at the UMass Eisenberg School of Management before being recruited to lead the FDIC.
The student speaker, Elkhansaa Elguenaoui, spoke of the learning that takes place outside the classroom.
“If my days here at UMass have showed me one thing, it’s not who you are labeled as, me being a first-generation Arab American Muslim woman of color … but more about what I do with that. It’s not what I look like but who I am,” she said.
Neil Hiralall, of Rochester, was there to support his son Christopher, who was graduating with a degree in accounting.
“Other than the rain it’s been fabulous,” he said of the ceremony. Earlier in the day he was at the Mullins Center for an honors ceremony.
“The pride of parenthood swells up when you hear the dean speak of all their accomplishments,” said Hiralall.
Eric Goldscheider can be reached at eric.goldscheider@gmail.com.