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Yorkville University Ontario’s Class of 2026 Crosses the Stage at Meridian Hall

Published: March 31, 2026

Resilience, self-belief, and the freedom to ask, “What if?” emerged as the prevailing themes at Yorkville University’s 2026 convocation ceremony.

Held on March 26, the event saw more than 300 of this year’s 570+ graduates from the Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of Creative Arts, and Bachelor of Interior Design programs cross the stage at Meridian Hall in downtown Toronto to collect their degrees from Yorkville President and Vice Chancellor Dr. Julia Christensen Hughes.

Opening Remarks

Setting the stage for the celebrations, Provost Dr. Eileen DeCourcy welcomed graduates and their loved ones – both those in the room and those watching from afar – with a reminder of what the day represented.

“Today is a testament to the transformative power of a Yorkville education,” she told the crowd, encouraging graduates to look around at their fellow classmates. “The bonds you have built during your time at Yorkville will last a lifetime. Your classmates are now part of your professional network, as are the thousands of YU alumni whose ranks you join today.”

Ontario Campus Principal and Vice President Academic Dr. Angela Antohi-Kominek also took to the stage during the ceremony’s opening to acknowledge the faculty, staff, and loved ones whose support made the day possible for all graduates present.

“Each of you is beginning a new part of your journey as you mark this extraordinary achievement and begin, or deepen, your professional lives enhanced by the learning and experiences of your Yorkville education. That education involved many people who touched your journey directly and those who worked behind the scenes,” she said, before introducing the members of the platform party.

Antohi-Kominek also highlighted a meaningful gesture extended to Indigenous graduates: a Chief Blanket sourced from Boy Chief Trading Post – an Indigenous-owned and operated company located on Siksika Nation east of Calgary – thoughtfully selected in partnership with Yorkville University’s Indigenous Students Advisory Council.

Distinguished Convocation Speaker Erin Martyn

Bachelor of Interior Design professor Erin Martyn delivered an inspiring convocation address to Yorkville University’s graduating class, drawing on her expertise in design to offer graduates a framework for navigating life beyond the classroom.

Martyn, who was named one of the inaugural recipients of Yorkville University’s President’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2025, opened her address by acknowledging the collective effort behind each graduate’s achievement, recognizing the friends, family, partners, and faculty whose support made convocation day possible.

She then turned to the graduates themselves, honouring the sacrifices many made to earn their degrees: “Many of you did so while juggling family, careers, and countless other responsibilities. This is truly a remarkable accomplishment and warrants another round of applause.”

At the heart of Martyn’s address was the design concept of iteration – the idea that meaningful outcomes are rarely arrived at in a straight line, but through persistent exploration, testing, and refinement. Drawing on the work of design theorists Horst Rittel and Richard Buchanan, Martyn introduced the concept of “wicked problems” to describe challenges too complex for simple solutions.

She admitted that early in her career this uncertainty felt daunting, but that she learned “slowly, painfully, perhaps even begrudgingly to love the iterative process, and to recognize the benefits of trading safety for freedom.”

Paraphrasing playwright Samuel Beckett‘s famous call to ‘try, fail, and fail better’, Martyn reframed failure as intelligence rather than setback – experience that informs stronger future attempts. She encouraged graduates to remain active participants in the pursuit of possibility, reminding them that iteration “means we aren’t just passively open to possibility, but actively pursuing it. It means we are willing to do the hard work that comes after asking: ‘What if?’ again and again and again.”

Martyn closed with a candid acknowledgment that life offers no guarantees, urging graduates to embrace uncertainty with the same spirit that brought them to convocation day.

“Try, fail, and try again. Ask ‘What if?’ Say yes. Yes to the opportunity, yes to the risk, yes to the iterations of yourself you haven’t even met yet,” she said.

“There is freedom in that kind of trying – there is beauty, and infinite possibility. And I know I speak for all Yorkville’s faculty and staff when I say: we can’t wait to see where all your ‘what ifs’ take you.”

Student Graduation Speaker Maigen Ann O’Brien

Bachelor of Creative Arts graduate Maigen Ann O’Brien delivered a heartfelt and humorous address to her fellow grads, celebrating the diverse journeys that brought each member of the Class of 2026 to convocation day – and the courage it took to get there.

O’Brien opened by acknowledging the many different paths represented in the room, grounding her speech in a theme close to her own experience: returning to education as a mature student, and learning primarily online while balancing life, work, and responsibilities.

“My classroom was my dining room,” she shared – a vivid illustration of what the student experience looked like for so many in the room who weren’t sitting in lecture halls every day, but were instead carving out time and space for their education wherever they could find it.

Yet despite those differences, she reminded her fellow graduates of their common ground: “We did not all arrive here the same way, but we are leaving with the same thing.”

At the heart of O’Brien’s address was a clever reframing of the letters “YU” – not just as Yorkville University’s initials, but as a question she carried throughout her studies: “Why you?” O’Brien described how, at the start of her journey, that question felt deeply uncomfortable, stirring doubts about whether she was making the right choice at the right stage of her life.

“As a mature student returning to education, I had doubts. I had worries. I regularly asked, ‘Am I doing the right thing?'” she recalled, recognizing that her feelings were far from unique: “We all have those doubts, no matter what path we came from – different cities, cultures, identities, and stages of life.”

Over time, O’Brien found her answer to the question of “Why you?” in the daily acts of perseverance that defined her path: “I logged in. I submitted the assignment. I rewrote the paper. I stayed up late researching. I didn’t quit. I chose discipline over doubt. That choice is what led us to this point.”

O’Brien also reflected on what Yorkville had taught her beyond the curriculum, noting that the university “showed me that learning does not belong to one age group. It does not belong to one gender or demographic. It does not belong to one pathway or journey. It belongs to anyone brave enough to say, ‘Because I’m worth it!'”

She closed her speech with a challenge to her fellow graduates to carry the “Why you?” question forward into every opportunity and moment of self-doubt – and to answer it with confidence: “Why not? I’m worth it!”

Closing Remarks & Cap Toss

Yorkville President and Vice Chancellor Dr. Julia Christensen Hughes brought the convocation ceremony’s formal proceedings to a close with a reflection on the uncertainty of the journey ahead – and the persistence required to navigate it.

Drawing on the words of celebrated Canadian author Margaret Atwood, she left graduates with an image to carry with them: “Water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water always does.”

With that, she invited the graduating class to rise — and on the count of three, Meridian Hall erupted as caps flew into the air, marking a celebratory end to Yorkville University’s 2026 convocation ceremony.