Craig Brandstetter, a member of the first official cohort of Elon University’s accelerated 3+1 business dual degree program, will share his perspective as undergraduate student commencement speaker for the 135th Commencement ceremonies on May 23.
In an email to seniors sent April 30, Vice President for Student Life Jon Dooley announced Brandstetter was chosen through a multi-step process involving student nominations, a senior class vote and final approval by Elon President Connie Book.
“Being able to be commencement speaker is a very exciting thing,” Brandstetter said. “It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
When Brandstetter arrived on campus, he said he immediately realized how caring the Elon community is. He said his speech will center around how Elon shapes and changes students.
“It's about growth and changing the perspective that most of us have about what Elon is,” Brandstetter said. “As well as the amount of growth that we've been able to get for ourselves through what Elon is as a place.”
During his time at Elon, Brandstetter said he has been involved all over campus including being a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, a tour guide for the Love School of Business, a team lead for the Center for Organizational Analytics and a member of club spikeball.
While he was involved in many things in his time at Elon, Brandstetter said one of the most impactful things he did was work as a resident adviser during his junior year.
“That was an amazing experience, just to help first-years and really get out of the circle I was stuck in,” Brandstetter said. “It can be clique-y sometimes at Elon, if you want, but seeing how different so many other people are here really makes it such a better place.”
Brandstetter said the people are what makes Elon the place it is, and the thing he said he will remember most from his time at Elon is his friends.
In addition to friends, Brandstetter said his overall Elon experience was memorable, including the close relationships Elon encourages between students and professors.
“The teachers genuinely cared about me, and that made me really love it here,” Brandstetter said. “That's not what they say about college, having 30 people in a class and the teacher knows your name. It's a very unique experience that we get here. I wouldn't trade that for anything.”
One of those professors Brandstetter has a close relationship with is his adviser, Catherine Parsons, who is the director of the accelerated 3+1 business dual degree program and Brandstetter’s academic adviser.
Parsons said Brandstetter’s drive, passion and enthusiasm to get to know people makes him a perfect fit for the student commencement speaker.
“He shows up for people and he shows up for the Elon community,” Parsons said. “That's who he is. He's a student who wants to give back to Elon, and this is a great way for him to do that.”
After graduation, Brandstetter said he has a job lined up working in corporate credit risk at Wells Fargo in Charlotte.
Brandstetter said he chose to attend Elon so he could be in the accelerated 3+1 business dual degree program, which is allowing him to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in finance and a master’s degree in business analytics. He is part of the first official cohort of the program to graduate. Members of the program take Elon 1010 and an introductory business class together with their cohort
Parsons said she is very excited to see a member of this first cohort speak, as the group has seen the program grow and take shape into what it is today.
“They've helped pave the way for future students, help us navigate things about the program we need to figure out, and so all students in the program have been very patient as we redeveloped how we can make this program come alive and be what it needs to be for these students,” Parsons said.
According to Parsons, the graduating cohort of the program contains 12 students and the overall program currently has 76 students enrolled.
The 2024-25 Student Body President, senior Taylor Cote, served on the selection committee. Cote said Brandstetter seemed to have put a lot of work into his speech.
“His speech overall was really solid, and he's clearly someone that the senior class was interested in hearing from,” Cote said.