Gov. Wes Moore tells Maryland students to be tough during challenging times

Gov. Wes Moore told University of Maryland students to be prepared to make hard choices and be strong when faced with unexpected challenges in their lives and careers during his keynote speech at the university’s spring commencement Monday evening.

In his 15-minute speech at SECU Stadium in College Park, the Maryland governor urged graduating students to choose to be “tough” and step out of their comfort zone when confronting unforeseen challenges of the future. Moore evoked his slogan of “Maryland tough,” adopted in the aftermath of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March.

A livestream of the spring commencement, set to start at 7 p.m., was canceled shortly before the ceremony began because of technical difficulties, a UMD spokesperson said. The School of Public Health ceremony was postponed to Tuesday night because of a power issue at Xfinity Center. Where Tuesday’s ceremony would take place was unclear Monday night.

Other speakers included Darryll Pines, UMD’s president, Jennifer King Rice, UMD’s senior vice president and provost, and Tolulope Ajayi, Class of 2024’s student speaker.

“When people ask me, ‘What kind of training helped you respond when the unthinkable happened?’ My answer isn’t, ‘Well, you know I have a bachelor of arts in International Relations,”’ Moore said in prepared remarks provided to The Baltimore Sun. “My answer is, ‘I choose tough. That was my preparation.’”

The governor’s speech came the same day the 984-foot Dali, the ship that struck and knocked the Key Bridge into the Patapsco River, was refloated. The ship sat for 55 days under a span of the bridge weighing millions of pounds that crews used explosives to remove.

About 9,000 winter and spring graduates were honored for earning bachelor’s degrees at Monday night’s ceremony. Around 3,000 students received master’s degrees and 1,200 earned doctoral degrees. The Class of 2024 graduated from high school in 2020 during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Moore, an Army veteran who attended the Johns Hopkins University, said he’s a Terp by association as his wife, Dawn Moore, earned a degree in government and politics from UMD.

“You don’t just educate Marylanders — you create Marylanders — and I couldn’t be prouder to stand with you as the 63rd governor of the state we love,” Moore said.

The governor said he joined the Army at 17 because the military promised to pay his college tuition. His service prepared him for his future career as a business owner, as a father and as the first Black governor in state history. It also prepared him to quickly respond to a late-night phone call with the news that the Key Bridge was destroyed, the Port of Baltimore was blocked and six construction workers had been killed.

Moore said Monday that speedy salvage efforts have accomplished in weeks what was expected to take months, and that crews are on track to clear the harbor channel.

“Choosing tough is pushing yourself to your very limit — and then pushing some more,” Moore said. “And if you choose tough, I promise that you will be ready to take on the world.”