Seventy-eight undergraduate students smile next to the nittany lion as they prepare to process in Penn State Leigh Valley's 2025 commencement ceremony.
CENTER VALLEY, Pa. — Penn State Lehigh Valley (PSU-LV) held its annual spring commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 10 at its Center Valley campus. Over 400 undergraduates were honored along with 200 graduate-level students.
Murtaza Jaffer, Penn State Lehigh Valley 2002 alumnus, served as the keynote speaker for the campus' spring 2025 commencement ceremony.
Murtaza Jaffer, co-owner of EBC Printing and Signs in Allentown and a 2002 PSU-LV alumnus, was the featured speaker, with remarks rooted in gratitude, resilience and purpose. Born in Tanzania, Jaffer came to the Lehigh Valley with his family when he was very young. Jaffer shared some indelible moments from his own life — moving to a new country, the powerful role education played in shaping his life, and how he was able to give life to someone else by donating a kidney to his father.
Jaffer said serving as commencement speaker was “incredibly humbling and emotional. Standing on that stage, looking out at the graduating class, I felt a deep sense of purpose — like everything I’d gone through led me to that moment. It was also a huge honor to return to a campus that helped shape who I am, and to be entrusted with sending off the next generation of Penn Staters into the world.”
Criminal Justice student, John Alvarado Toro, was elected as the Student Marshal for Penn State Lehigh Valley's 2025 spring commencement.
John Alvarado Toro, 2025 student marshal, called the experience “amazing and life-changing,” and also spoke about resilience in his address — particularly the level of resolve and commitment he and his classmates displayed throughout their college careers.
“We’ve been going through a lot — political chaos, a global pandemic, natural disasters — but we’re still here. We made it. In my message, I wanted to celebrate the resilience that brought us through these things to receive our degrees,” he said.
Alvarado Toro said he chose PSU-LV because of its small size, proximity to home and affordability.
“The University being affordable was the biggest thing for me,” he said. “And it was close to home. I could continue my studies and work to support my family. PSU-LV exceeded my expectations because of the environment. I thought I’d just go there, finish my degree, and move on. I was concerned, being a first-generation student living in this country, that I wouldn’t fit in. [The campus] has a real family-like environment. The staff and students helped me adapt faster than I thought I would be able to.”
Alvarado Toro is currently working as a paralegal. He said, “I would love to attend law school. I plan to keep working on my writing and research skills, and build up my freelance paralegal business. I’m also moving to Spain for a bit and will apply for dual citizenship.”
Kriday Sharma, project supply chain management and information systems graduate, completed two years of study at Penn State Lehigh Valley and two years at University Park, as part of the 2+2 program.
Kriday Sharma, a 2+2 student who completed two years at PSU-LV and finished his degree at University Park, said he chose to walk at PSU-LV’s commencement ceremony because of his positive experience at the campus.
“I wanted to walk in PSU-LV’s ceremony for a lot of reasons," Sharma said. "One is just how personal the ceremony feels. The campus is smaller in size, but there are big emotions. I got to see professors I hadn’t seen in some time, and they remembered me. It was so warm — really like a family.”
Sharma graduated with a bachelor’s degree in supply chain and information systems and will start a full-time position as an operations supervisor with DHL in Harrisburg in June.
David M. Kleppinger, chair of the Penn State University Board of Trustees, provided the authorization to confer degrees at Penn State Lehigh Valley's spring 2025 commencement ceremony.
Penn State Board of Trustees chair David Kleppinger, an Emmaus native, remarked that, for him, coming back to the PSU-LV campus was something of a homecoming, and PSU-LV has been a steady presence.
“It’s been a very stable if not growing campus in terms of enrollment perspective, and that’s been the case even in a challenging environment, with the number of high school graduates going down and so much competition from the PASSHE and private universities in the area,” he said. “The Lehigh Valley is chock-full of educational opportunities, but Penn State Lehigh Valley has endured. That’s a real credit to the entire team, from the chancellor on down to the students who have chosen to go to that campus and thrive.”
After the presentation of diplomas and conferring of degrees, the graduates were inducted into the Penn State Alumni Association.
