Bergen Celebrates Class of 2025
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – A record number of Bergen Community College candidates for graduation participated in the institution’s 56th annual commencement exercises during a morning ceremony at MetLife Stadium on May 13. Nearly 1,100 graduates in attendance celebrated alongside approximately 7,000 family, friends, faculty, staff and special guests.
All told, the official number of the class of 2025 graduates will climb to more than 2,000 when including those students who graduated in December and prospective August graduates. Francesco Maneri represented the class as valedictorian - the top student among his peers.
“In life, skill is second … kindness is first,” he said during his remarks at the event. “Knowledge means little if it isn’t shared generously. Learning is richest in collaboration. The best of us lift others up rather than leave them behind.”
The class of 2025 featured members of the College’s Turning Point Program for adults with intellectual disabilities, local high school students who earned degrees through Bergen’s dual enrollment program and 71-year-old Nicholas Gatti, an end-stage kidney disease survivor, founding member of the food rescue organization Table to Table and retired award-winning executive chef. Class of 2025 graduate Erica Faye Tubera performed the Star-Spangled Banner at the ceremony.
Among the special guests, Eva’s Village CEO, Bergen Board of Trustees member and Bergen alumnus Howard Haughton provided the keynote address, where he encouraged graduates to find their “true north.”
“Stay true to your values and your passion,” he said. “Doing so will help you make career choices that are a labor of love - work done out of passion, dedication and deep personal commitment rather than financial gain or obligation.”
Joining Haughton as featured guests, Bergen County Executive James J. Tedesco III and Bergen County Board of Commissioner Chair Mary Amoroso also spoke at the ceremony. Professor Emeritus Charles McNerney, Ph.D., opened the event as the grand marshal before yielding to Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost Andrew Tomko, Ph.D., who served as master of ceremonies.
Late in the ceremony, and immediately after Student Government Association President Hanieh Kachooee led the graduates in a ceremonial turning of tassels, the College awarded five $1,000 “send-off scholarships” to randomly selected graduates in attendance. The scholarships, which have become an annual tradition to signify the end of the ceremony and the graduates’ Bergen education, aim to provide the selected graduates with a special head-start on their post-Bergen journey. This year, Bergen Assistant Director of Information Technology Business Operations Kirsten Perino and her family foundation personally sponsored the scholarships by donating to the Bergen Community College Foundation. Accordingly, Perino drew the randomly selected names of the scholarship awardees: Roy Hidalgo-Ruiz, Valerie Leanette Orozco, Isidro Pablo Alvelo, Luisa Jimenez and Miguel Borstel Silva. Perino said her family made the donation after seeing the graduates’ response to receiving the scholarships at previous commencements. The Perino Family Foundation Graduation Scholarship will continue next year; the family has already made a $5,000 donation for the class of 2026.
“We were really inspired by the students in previous years,” she said. “You could just tell how much it meant to them. Supporting education - and our students - is the best investment you can make.”
Inspired by the Perino Family Foundation, four platform guests - President Eric M. Friedman, Ph.D., Vice President of Student Affairs AJ Trump, Ed.D., Trustee Haughton and Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost Tomko - spontaneously announced that they would each sponsor $1,000 send-off scholarships as well. Graduates Morelia Julissa Rosales, Gabriella Carlucci, Daniel A. Gallegos and Austin Peluso had their names randomly pulled for the awards.
Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls more than 13,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.
Photo Caption: Members of the Bergen Community College class of 2025.
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