University News Carolina celebrates Class of 2025 with rousing Mia Hamm speech
A graduate holds his cap in the air as fireworks go off behind him at Kenan Stadium during 2025 Spring Commencement. (Johnny Andrews / UNC-Chapel Hill)
By Michael Lananna, University Communications, Saturday, May 10th, 2025
The soccer legend and 1994 Carolina graduate addressed 6,800-plus Tar Heel graduates in a ceremony presided over by Chancellor Lee H. Roberts.
“And always and forever, you’ll be a part of this team. Our team. Graduates of the University of North Carolina,” Mia Hamm told graduates at Spring Commencement. (Jon Gardiner /UNC-Chapel Hill
Though Mia Hamm ’94 is widely considered the greatest women’s soccer player of all time, she couldn’t have won four NCAA titles, two World Cups and two Olympic gold medals all by herself.
As Hamm told Carolina’s Class of 2025 under the Kenan Stadium lights Saturday night, it takes a team working in sync to truly succeed.
“A team with 11 Mia Hamms will not win the World Cup or Olympic Gold,” Hamm said. “You need people with different skills, different strengths, different approaches to solving problems.”
The 2025 Spring Commencement ceremony honored 6,829 graduates – 4,358 undergraduates, 1,487 master’s degrees candidates and 962 students receiving doctoral degrees. And, as Hamm reminded the graduates, none of them made it to this day on their own.
“Each of you will receive a diploma with your name on it,” Hamm said. “But written in invisible ink all over that piece of paper are the names of everyone who helped you along the way.”
