Carolina puts on a show for the Class of 2026

For Carolina’s graduates, the party’s been going on for weeks now.

Graduation photos at the Old Well and the Bell Tower climb. Celebrations on the last day of classes and a last lecture from Roy Williams.

The good times continued during Spring Commencement Saturday night at Kenan Stadium. Country music superstar Eric Church — a native of Granite Falls, North Carolina — put on a “Carolina” performance and shared his own version of string theory with UNC-Chapel Hill’s 7,183 newest alumni. Then the new graduates tossed their caps in the air and watched the fireworks show.

Throughout his keynote speech, Church, an 11-time Grammy nominee and Tar Heel fanatic, held his guitar and used its strings as a metaphor for life.

“When all six are in tune, the chords they make can stop a conversation cold, carry a broken person through the worst night of their life or make a room full of strangers feel, for three minutes, like they’ve known each other forever,” said Church, addressing a sea of students in Carolina Blue regalia. They also wore sunglasses of the same color as a nod to Church, who’s famous for his shades. “If even one is off, the whole chord unravels.”

Church’s six strings of life are faith (the low E); family (the A string); personal relationships (the D string); ambition and resilience (the G string); community (the B string); and individuality (the high E).

The graduates need to understand, Church said, that each of their own strings will come out of tune at various points in life, through no fault of their own.

But the “difference between a life that sounds like music and a life that sounds like noise” is stopping to listen, identifying what’s wrong and why and making the proper adjustments, he said. “I encourage you to take your six strings, make it something worth hearing and play your song.”

Church received an honorary degree and was recognized for his philanthropy and volunteer efforts, especially in western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene.

Then the two-time Country Music Association album of the year winner picked up his guitar and showed a packed Kenan what all six strings in harmony sound like with a performance of “Carolina,” a song from his 2009 album of the same name.

An apt choice for the occasion, the lyrics will resonate with the Class of 2026 as they spread across the world as Tar Heel graduates.

I carry you in my heart.

Your memory comes over me like the dark and

Like a phone call from my baby

Sayin’ honey I miss ya like crazy

Like the sound of a siren song

Oh, Carolina, ya keep callin’ me home

Callin’ me home

Embracing uncertainty

After senior music major Sophia Luper opened the ceremony by performing the national anthem, Chancellor Lee H. Roberts addressed the Carolina graduates with words about uncertainty, the unknown and anxiety.

“People ask me all the time in this job to be a fortuneteller,” said Roberts, presiding over his third Spring Commencement. “To predict what AI will mean for careers and the economy; which new scientific discoveries are coming; and how many basketball games we’re going to win next year.

“Apart from that last one — we’re going to win pretty much all of the games — the honest answer is I don’t know.”

Much of life is about how we choose to respond to that uncertainty, Roberts said. He called a sound education a “shield against fear,” equipping us with wisdom and hope.

What is known is that the Tar Heels Roberts addressed received a sound education in Chapel Hill, a place where they also made lifelong friends and connections for walking into the unknown.

“Friendships form here for the human pilgrimage,” Roberts said, quoting UNC-Chapel Hill alumnus and former University president Frank Porter Graham.

‘Take that responsibility seriously’

Wise words and humor came from several speakers.

After quoting English philosopher Francis Bacon, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Magnus Egerstedt just as quickly jumped to “Spider-Man’s uncle Benjamin Parker, who tells us that ‘with great power comes great responsibility.’”

“Take that responsibility seriously,” Egerstedt said. “Go out and make the world a little better than how you found it. Do us proud. But more importantly, do yourselves proud.”

Partaking in the annual tradition of the 50th anniversary class returning, Tar Heels who graduated in 1976 were recognized at Spring Commencement.

Rotimi Kukoyi, senior class president and one of Carolina’s three graduating Rhodes scholars, drew laughs and cheers when traveling back in time to his senior year of high school.

“The best decision I made in high school was coming to Carolina,” Kukoyi said. “The second best was turning down that other blue school down the road.”

Kukoyi acknowledged that this graduation was “the last moment” this group of students would share together.

But with the final words before the Clef Hangers performed “Carolina in My Mind,” Kukoyi delivered a message that paralleled the sentiment of the song Church sang earlier in the night.

“Carolina does not leave us,” Kukoyi said. “This Southern slice of heaven goes with us. So wherever you go next, go with the heart of a Heel. It will always, always be a great day to be a Tar Heel.”

Soon after, fireworks lit the night sky, a priceless scene for the newest graduates of our priceless gem.