Adelphi's 130th Commencement on May 21, 2026, saw 1,165 students, ranging in age from 19 to 59, receive bachelor’s degrees.
It was a day of transitions, and a happy one.
Interim President Christopher Storm, PhD, who will be returning to his job as provost on June 1 with new leadership responsibilities as senior executive vice president of academic affairs, expressed sincere thanks for the support he received over the past year.
President-Elect Michael Balboni ’81, JD, enthusiastically greeted the graduating seniors as his “fellow alumni” and offered his success as an indication of how far an Adelphi degree can take them.
And the 1,165 members of the Class of 2026 closed the book on their undergraduate years and entered the next phase of their lives.
Commencement by the Numbers and Degrees
Just as it is every year, there was no “typical” Adelphi graduate. Six bachelor’s degree recipients are 19 years old. The oldest is 59 and is one of six graduates who are in their 50s. Thirty-five are over 30 years old, many of whom earned degrees in fully online or hybrid programs designed for working adults from Adelphi’s College of Professional and Continuing Studies.
Diplomas were awarded in 51 different degree programs, reflecting the wide variety of academic and career interests of students in the Class of 2026.
The largest group of graduates were the 299 students who were awarded Bachelor of Science degrees in Nursing. Adelphi’s College of Nursing and Public Health is perennially ranked as a U.S. News & World Best College for Undergraduate Nursing Programs. It is also a U.S. News Best Nursing School for master’s degree and Doctor of Nursing Practice programs as well, and one of only 13 institutions designated as a Center of Excellence in Nursing Education by the National League for Nursing.
Psychology was the next-most-popular degree, with 85 graduates. U.S. News & World Report includes Adelphi’s Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology in its rankings of Best Undergraduate Psychology Programs, Best Psychology Grad Schools and Best Clinical Psychology Doctoral Programs.
Biology, a favorite major for premedical and preprofessional students, had the third-largest group of graduates, with 67 students earning their degrees. Rounding out the top five were two more programs in the healthcare and wellness fields—health sciences, with 52 students earning their Bachelor of Science, and physical education, with 51 graduates.
Top-10 degrees also included accelerated nursing, management, computer science, marketing and finance.
Graduates From Near and Far
While most of this year’s graduates are from New York, members of the Class of 2026 came to Adelphi from 24 other states. Students from New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania were the largest out-of-state contingents.
The class also included 86 international students from 42 countries, including 10 from India, seven from Pakistan, five from Mongolia and five from Vietnam.
Hussein Ali Rifath, president of Adelphi’s Student Government Association, celebrated the global character of the Class of 2026 in his Commencement address. Rifath, whose family is from Bangladesh, congratulated the international students and the large number of graduates with backgrounds in other lands in a dozen languages. Rifath graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 average and a degree in political science and will spend next year in Spain on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant scholarship.
A Valuable Degree
The experience of recent graduates shows that an Adelphi degree is a ticket to a well-paying job. In our most recent alumni survey, graduates of our Class of 2024 reported an average salary of $76,450. Ninety-two percent were employed, continuing their education or participating in an internship within one year of graduation.
The successful outcomes of Adelphi graduates have attracted national attention. Forbes, which bases its America’s Top Colleges rankings on the ability to produce successful, high-earning and influential graduates from all economic backgrounds, ranked Adelphi University as the top private university on Long Island. So did The Wall Street Journal, whose rankings reflect how well colleges prepare their graduates for financial success.
Words to Live By
While this year’s graduates walked away with their degrees and their career plans, they also took along some advice from two Adelphi alumni whose careers prove their point.
President-Elect Balboni, who grew up in Garden City, rode his skateboard to campus on his first day at Adelphi with plans of going to medical school. Instead, he went to law school, became a litigator, a state legislator, a business executive and now a college president. What has that experience taught him?
“You have no idea what the future will bring,” he said. “Life is not always going to be a straight line to where you’re going to wind up.”
But he also gave listeners the key to his success. “My career has always been a series of saying ‘I’ll try that.’”
Joseph W. Westphal ’70, PhD, who received an honorary degree that day while also having the pleasure of seeing his granddaughter receive her Adelphi degree in nursing, echoed President-Elect Balboni’s message of life’s unpredictability and of opportunities taken advantage of.
After graduating from Adelphi, he went to graduate school, became a professor and took academic leadership programs. “But it was government service that took me places I never imagined I would experience,” he said, referring to diplomatic and high-level administrative appointments he received from Presidents Reagan, Clinton and Obama.
“The world belongs to those who are prepared not only to succeed, but to serve,” he said, and he followed that with three challenges for graduates who want to follow that path:
“Take personal responsibility for your actions, your decisions and your impact.”
“Be honest and ethical, especially when it’s inconvenient.”
“Be thoughtful about where you can make the greatest difference.”