Retiring Virginia Tech President Charles Steger sends off graduates 

BLACKSBURG — “Caution: New Va. Tech Grad.”

Biology graduate Christine Luu’s mortarboard said it all Friday.

“The world is ours now,” Luu said, arms outstretched for effect. “You don’t know where we’re going. You don’t know what we’re going to do!”

Well, Luu actually does know.

“I’m going to nursing school,” she said.

And she won’t have a lot of time to celebrate, or to relax. The 21-year-old Annandale native said she starts classes at Virginia Commonwealth University on Monday.

On Friday, she joined about 3,900 Tech undergraduate and graduate students on Worsham Field to celebrate the hard-won milestone of a degree. About 25,000 of their family members and friends braved the hot sun and 80-degree weather to watch.

Friday was a milestone for university President Charles Steger as well.

Steger announced on Tuesday that after nearly 14 years as president he would step down as soon as Tech’s Board of Visitors can find a replacement. Such searches take about a year.

As during commencements past, Steger presided over the ceremony, and this year he also gave the keynote address.

“This is the most joyous moment in the academic year,” Steger told the assembly.

But he very quickly reminded the graduates that they face long careers.

“You will be confronted with an amazing array of problems and issues,” Steger said.

“Plan your life,” he said. “But be ready to seize opportunities.”

The president harked back to his own undergraduate commencement in 1970, when he said his Tech degree in architecture gave him the confidence to move into his career. But throughout his life, Steger said, he encountered opportunities he had not imagined and tried to seize them, including becoming president of his alma mater.

Steger said the same was true during his tenure as Tech’s president. From admittance to the Atlantic Coast Conference to the partnership with Carilion Clinic that eventually led to the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke, Steger said he and his administration “seized opportunities we could not have foreseen.”

History major Jon Watson, 22, of Richmond said he is working toward his own future, although he is unsure what shape it will take. Watson said he’s applied to the FBI, and hopes to hear something back in the next year or so. In the meantime, he said he’ll move back home and look for a part-time job.

Watson said having Steger give the keynote made his commencement unique.

“It’s pretty neat,” Watson said. “It might be his last year.”

Billie Tubbs of Roanoke, a Tech alumnus who attended to see her youngest daughter, Gracie, graduate, said she also thought it made the event special.

But her mind was mostly on the future.

Gracie Tubbs, a health and nutrition major, is set to attend graduate school at George Mason University, her mom said.

Steger also focused on the future, saying the foundation laid during the 14 years of his tenure would shape the university in the decades to come. Just as the graduates face challenges, so too does Tech, Steger said.

But “the promise of this university eclipses all its challenges,” Steger said.

The culture of the university that shaped the class of 2013 is entrepreneurial and creative, the president said.

“So find your passion,” he said. “And dare to pursue it.”

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