“Go out and make your parents proud and your families proud,” Todd P. Haymore, Virginia’s secretary of commerce and trade, told Virginia Commonwealth University’s fall graduates.

“Make all of our nation proud,” he said. “But above all else, make yourselves proud.”

Families, friends and new graduates packed the Stuart C. Siegel Center last Saturday for the VCU Fall Commencement. Smaller departmental graduation ceremonies took place throughout last weekend for the 226 different degree and certificate programs in the university’s 13 schools and the College of Arts and Humanities.

Secretary Haymore, the event’s main speaker, was appointed to the cabinet of Gov. Terry McAuliffe in September.