Bergen Community College: Bergen Celebrates Class Of 2025

Press release from Bergen Community College:

May 14, 2025

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.”

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.

This press release was produced by Bergen Community College. The views expressed here are the author’s own.