New London ― As the procession of Mitchell College students crossed Montauk Avenue towards a large tent where Saturday’s 79th commencement ceremony was held, Aizhane Glenn of New Haven flashed a grin towards her family.

Glenn, a lacrosse player who earned a bachelor degree in criminal justice, was able to pick her family members out of the crowd easily enough among the hundreds of onlookers by their matching red shirts, signs and balloons.

“We’re proud of her,” said Glenn’s mother, Tanya Cox, who said her daughter is the youngest of eight and the fourth through college. Her daughter has been working part-time at the Waterford Police Department and lining up a job as a Judicial Marshall.

There was pride on the faces of hundreds of other family members as they watched 125 graduates receive diplomas on Saturday. Graduates earned a mix of associate and bachelor degrees in everything from business administration and early childhood studies to marine biology and sports management.

Mitchell College President Tracy Y. Espy, in her remarks to graduating students, called it a day of celebration but not the “finish line.”

“This day is aptly called commencement because it is the beginning of what is to come,” Espy said. “Whatever is next for you, embrace it with the same determination and tenacity that brought you to this day.”

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, the ceremony’s commencement speaker, spoke about the diversity of the student body at Mitchell and the tenacity it took for some students and their families to succeed against the odds.

Tong said he wrote his speech on a train that was passing through a section of Baltimore, Maryland where he noticed rows of homes where people live that are sometimes “overlooked, underestimated and invisible.”

“Some of you know what it feels like to be invisible. How it feels when people don’t see you,” Tong said. “Many of you were not expected to make it. Many of you have felt underestimated for a long time and overlooked…because you are different.”

Tong, who is the son of Chinese immigrants and the first Asian American in Connecticut to be elected to a statewide office, said he understood what it felt like to be underestimated. He shared a story about running for attorney general. He was a leading candidate but Despite his experience and credentials, Tong said that when he called a high ranking Democratic delegate in 2018 asking for support, he was told “no, I’m sorry, I can’t vote for you.”

“She said ‘yes, I’m so proud of the work that you’ve done but you just don’t look like what I think an attorney general should look like’,” Tong said, “She couldn’t see me.”

He credited Mitchell College with being a place where students are not overlooked but rather celebrated for their differences and varied backgrounds.

Molly Steel-Miller, a transfer student from Salem, Oregon who played volleyball for the college and graduated with a degree in health sciences, delivered the student address.

Steel-Miller talked about her habit of leaving doors open despite always being reminded to close them.

“The doors I left open were literal,” Steel-Miller said. “The doors my parents continue to hold open for my sister and me are figurative.”

She said it is the support systems, like the ones provided by her parents, that “open the doors to higher education for us.”

“A minoritized child, mature enough for independence, will never be ready for the resulting disparity and inequity. I know the door can be heavy mom and dad. Thank you.”

In her two years at Mitchell, Steel-Miller said she had learned that “not all closed doors are a reflection of who you are but an opportunity to find authenticity for yourself, an opportunity to stand on, and in, your truth,” she said/

Two retiring faculty members with a combined 91 years of teaching at Mitchell were recognized by Espy on Saturday’s ceremony.

Marc Goldsmith, associate professor of communication, is leaving after 55 years at the school. Dean Roberts, associate professor of applied exercise science and sports management, is leaving after 36 years.

“Dean and Marc, thank you both for your tireless service to Mitchell College and for the impact you have made in the lives of tens of thousands of students,” Espy said.

G.smith@theday.com