Olympic gold medal gymnast Laurie Hernandez achieved another rare feat on Tuesday — speaking at one university’s commencement while still enrolled as a student at a different school. “Give me a year and I’ll be where all of you are today,” Hernandez, 24, told Kean University’s Class of 2025. Hernandez is finishing her junior year at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she is pursuing a degree in drama. She spoke at Kean’s commencement at the Prudential Center in Newark, where she was awarded the Kean Medal. Hernandez recreated the signature Olympic tradition of athletes trying to taking a bite out their medals to test the medal, though this time she put her Kean award in her mouth with a wink. Nearly 3,500 degrees were granted to undergraduate and graduate students at Kean, which is exploring a proposed merger with New Jersey City University. It was the first commencement in Kean’s history recognizing undergraduate and graduate students at the same ceremony, campus officials said. “We gather here today as one unified family,” Kean University President Lamont O. Repollet told the graduates. Repollet mentioned several graduates by name, including his daughter, Lauryn, who received a bachelor’s degree in architectural studies. Hernandez was born in New Brunswick and grew up in Old Bridge. “Transitioning from an athlete to a student was daunting,” said Hernandez, explaining that she was home-schooled from the third grade through high school. Hernandez retired from gymnastics at age 21, two years after she was named to the New Jersey Hall of Fame at age 19, making her its youngest inductee. Hernandez spoke for 19 minutes. She shared lessons from her gymnastics career, highlighted by winning a gold medal in the women’s team gymnastics event and a silver on the balance beam at the 2016 Olympics. Her favorite Olympics moment, she said, was not the gold medal, but one afternoon after practice when she and two teammates — Simone Biles and Aly Raisman — were “taking our hair scrunchies and sling-shotting them off the balcony,” just for fun. “When I think about the Olympics. I don’t just think about winning. I think about the stress, the time, the injuries it took to get there, and I think about laughing hard with my friends,” Hernandez said. She drew a parallel to how the Class of 2025 might someday recall their experiences at Kean — from not liking certain classes, to the “weird memes” in group chats and eating cold takeout food while rushing to finish an assignment. “In the midst of your success, you will remember the laughter, and that will be your favorite part,” Hernandez said. Hernandez was among several speakers at the commencement. The others included state Senate President Nicholas Scutari, a Kean alumnus. Scutari, D-22nd Dist., received an honorary doctorate of laws degree, which he said inspired his remarks about a “tumultuous time” in the nation. “We are a country of laws. We believe in courts, we believe in legislatures, we believe in democracy, we believe in government, and if that’s tuned on its head, people need to stand up, through civil discourse and making sure that democracy remains, because that’s the future of this world,” Scutari said. Repollet urged graduates to be curious, ask questions, listen, admit mistakes and “speak up even when your voice shakes.” “You are entering a world that is messy, where misinformation drowns out truth,” he said. ”But you are not powerless." Jeffrey Brooks was named the “graduate student with distinction.” Brooks told graduates that, while knowledge is important, “the world needs more action.” “Action is easier when you feel supported, and I’ve been blessed,” Brooks said. Student Government President Makenzie Kuntz used as an analogy the two minutes she was given to speak. “It only takes two minutes to strike a match and create a spark, two minutes to make someone feel seen, two minutes to show up for a cause, two minutes to decide to be a better version of yourself, and these small moments, they add up,” Kuntz said. Kean’s valedictorian, Sophia Sacewicz, referenced her unusual path to the honor. She received an associate degree in liberal arts at Ocean County College before enrolling at the university. “You don’t have to fit inside a mold,” Sacewicz said Sacewicz referenced a quote attributed to Walt Disney, that “all our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” “Class of 2025: Don’t be afraid to step outside of the mold, and never stop following your dreams,” Sacewicz said. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism you rely on and trust. Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com.