The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater will celebrate the achievements of its graduates at 10 a.m. Saturday, December 13, as proud families and friends gather for the 2025 December commencement ceremony.

Approximately 888 students will be earning their degrees, including undergraduates from the College of Arts and Communication, the College of Business and Economics, the College of Education and Professional Studies, the College of Integrated Studies, and the College of Letters and Sciences, and students earning a master’s degree or doctorate from the School of Graduate Studies.

The ceremony, about two hours long and presided over by Chancellor Corey A. King, will be held at Kachel Fieldhouse in the Williams Center.

This year’s commencement speaker is Mark Perry, a San Francisco business leader whose father, Harold Perry, graduated from UW-Whitewater in 1933 and returned in 1958 to serve as commencement speaker. When Harold Perry retired in 1974, the family established the Harold M. Perry and Margaret A. Perry Scholarship Fund at UW-Whitewater. Recently, the family established the Harold M. Perry ’33 and Margaret A. Perry Endowed Faculty Chair, a $2 million gift in 2024 that provides resources to a selected UW-Whitewater faculty member or members to address complex issues, develop long-term solutions and positively impact Wisconsin’s economy.

The student speaker is Samuel Bardales, from Gurnee, Illinois, who is earning a Bachelor of Science in mathematics, secondary education licensure, and a minor in business law. On campus, he joined myriad student organizations and served in multiple leadership roles. Early on, he joined the Leadership Involvement Team for Wells Residence Hall and became deeply involved with Whitewater Student Government. He also was involved in Whitewater Cru and was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. Bardales hopes to work as a math teacher after graduation and later further his education.

82 percent of the graduating students come from Wisconsin, and 25 states and seven countries other than the United States are represented in the graduating class.

The graduating class includes nine international students, 69 military veterans and 154 nontraditional students, defined as undergraduate students who are 25 years of age or older. In addition, 77 self-identified students with disabilities will receive degrees.

A total of 56 graduating students participated in the university’s Hired Before Graduation campaign, which celebrates students who landed a job, earned acceptance to graduate school or started their own business before commencement. That represents an increase of 27% over the December 2024 class.

Commencement will be broadcast live online by UWW-TV, the university television station. Access to the livestream will be posted on our commencement webpage.