Commencement 2025
General UniveristyÂ
The Department of Spanish and Portuguese Spring Commencement Ceremony
Students who completed the application for graduation in  for spring/summer 2025 graduation or those who graduated in the Fall 2024 semester were invited to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese's Spring Ceremony.  Electronic invitations (e-vites) will be sent out at the end of Feburary 2025. RSVPs are received via this system to those students who have applied to graduate through their BuffPortal.
May 8, 2025, 12:00pm
Keynote Speaker: Jessie Ulibarri, ETHN/SPPR '06
Hon. Jessie Ulibarri is a lifelong community organizer and a former Colorado State Senator representing the community where he was born and raised (Thornton/Federal Heights/Commerce City). He has dedicated his life to building community power from the states outward.
Over his career, Jessie has passed hundreds of economic, racial, and gender justice policies into state law, including enacting wage theft protections, establishing workplace protections for pregnant workers, curbing police misconduct, modernizing Colorado’s election system, implementing driver’s licenses for undocumented residents, outlawing solitary confinement in state prisons, combating climate change through clean energy technologies, and expanding access to affordable housing. Jessie previously served as the Co-Executive Director of the State Innovation Exchange, a nonpartisan network of state legislators, Interim Co-Executive Director of Wellstone Action, the nation's largest training organization for candidates and community organizers, and the Public Policy Director at the ACLU of Colorado, where he worked to expand civil liberties for the residents of Colorado. He currently sits on the national governing boards of Common Cause, Community Change, and the Proteus Fund, where he continues his work to build a democracy and economy that works for everyone.
Jessie holds a Masters of Public Management from Carnegie Mellon University and a B.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, with a focus in Business Spanish and Ethnic Studies. He currently resides in western Pennsylvania with his husband and daughter.
Hale Sciences Building (HALE) - Room 270 (1350 Pleasant St, Boulder, CO 80309)
Reception immediately follows ceremony at the McKenna Languages Building Patio (1505 Pleasant St, Boulder, CO 80309)