Salem University (West Virginia) holds commencement ceremony at Robinson Grand

“Commencement is always the best day of the year,” said Paul Weber, president of Salem University. “It’s seen as a culmination of the students’ journey. And that’s the reason why we are here. We are here to help the students succeed. It’s absolutely outstanding to see all of these students’ hard work pay off.”

In total, the Class of 2024 at Salem University had more than 320 graduates, Weber said.

“However, we will only have 90 students walking today,” he said. “With all of those students comes guests. This semester, we will have over 600 people attending the commencement ceremony.”

Ben Lam, a student from London, plans to move south after graduation and continue his career.

“My degree is in business administration and sports management,” he said. “I am actually going into a marketing job in Miami.”

“I have already started at this job. The way this job works is through working from the bottom up. I think this is a great opportunity,” Lam said.

Franky Gulco, a student from San Tan Valley, Arizona, plans to head home and pursue his dreams after graduating.

“My degree is in Business Administration,” he said. “I honestly am not sure what I’m going to do with my degree yet. I am currently working on becoming a Hotshot Firefighter back home in Arizona.

“I think I might use my degree as a side hustle,” Gulco said. “This way I am still using my degree while also pursuing my dreams.”

It has been an exciting year at Salem, according to Weber.

“Throughout the 2023-24 school year we have been trying to engage with the community of Salem even more,” he said. “We also got approved for the Promise Scholarship, and that’s even more exciting. To celebrate us getting the Promise Scholarship we held an after hours event this past week. We are also happy to announce that we have been working closely with the Harrison County Chamber of Commerce.”

Salem University is continuing to grow, Weber said.

“Getting to see the school grow and prosper is fantastic,” he said. “Over the course of this past year we have seen growth in many different areas at the school. We are continuing to see growth in both our athletics and our academics.”

Alderson Broaddus’ closing provided a new opportunity for Salem University in athletics, allowing the university to take its place in the Mountain East Conference, Weber said.

“We also got to participate in the MEC athletic conference this year,” he said. “This is the first time in years that we have competed in the Mountain East Conference. We were saddened to hear about Alderson Broaddus closing. But that opened up a slot for us to be able to play a lot of the local schools in athletics.

“We even got to rekindle the rivalry with our neighbors to the north, Fairmont State University,” Weber said. “This was a great year overall for athletics and academics.”