Douglas A. Girod, M.D., executive vice chancellor of the University of Kansas Medical Center, left, and KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little react to chants from the graduates asking Gray-Little to stay one more year. Gray-Little has announced she is stepping down this summer. The two participated in the KU commencement ceremonies Sunday, May 14, 2017 on the KU campus.

This year’s University of Kansas Commencement celebration marked a jumping-off point for thousands of graduates, as well as their outgoing chancellor, Bernadette Gray-Little.

After leading KU since 2009, Gray-Little is stepping down as chancellor this summer. On Sunday, speaking to graduates in what’s expected to be her last public address as chancellor, Gray-Little offered an unusual public glimpse into her own college story.

“Like you, I, too, will soon be making a change as I step down as chancellor this summer, and like many of you, I’m feeling a combination of excitement and pride and happiness and sadness,” Gray-Little said. “You see, higher education changed my life.”

Gray-Little said that neither of her parents attended college. In fact, she said, neither had even finished high school at the time she applied for college.

Nonetheless, her parents emphasized the “power” of getting an education and it was thanks to their support that she was able to do it, Gray-Little said.

“So when I talk about the transformative power of higher education,” said Gray-Little, who is black, “I’m talking about it as a university faculty member but also from the perspective of a young girl from a segregated town in North Carolina, whose life was forever changed by the opportunity to go to college.”

Gray-Little said leading KU had been a privilege she would always cherish. She thanked the university community for its support of KU’s mission and the students for their ability to invigorate and inspire the school’s leaders.

KU graduates enter the campanile prior to walking down the Hill into Memorial Stadium for KU's 145th Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 14, 2017.

“The University of Kansas is an amazing place with amazing people and an instinctive spirit to improve the world,” she said.

On Sunday, deans of KU’s respective schools mass-conferred degrees upon roughly 5,000 students who graduated this year, many of whom participated in the traditional walk down the Hill and gathered at Memorial Stadium for KU’s 145th Commencement ceremony.

Receiving an honorary doctorate this year was one who Gray-Little held up as an example of a past KU graduate who went on to change the world: William McNulty, a former U.S. Marine and Iraqi war veteran who co-founded Team Rubicon. The nonprofit organization, founded following the devastating Haiti earthquake of 2010, recruits military veterans to provide disaster relief and humanitarian aid all over the United States and other continents.

McNulty, in his remarks to graduates, said disaster and war zones are “eerily similar” and that Team Rubicon co-founders realized veterans, with their military and global experience, “are damn good at disaster relief.”

KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little welcomes attendees to KU's 145th Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 14, 2017, in Memorial Stadium.

However, beyond helping victims of disasters around the world, the organization also has grown to become a powerful support for veterans, many of whom suffer from ongoing war-related effects such as PTSD and high suicide rates.

McNulty invoked the military phrase “embraced the suck” — meaning, basically, when something is hard, lean in and do it — and reminded graduates there will be times in life when things are tough and they feel alone.

“Embracing the suck is something people must do together,” McNulty said. “Nothing can break the camaraderie that arises from shared misery, and camaraderie is what gets us through.”

Gray-Little said becoming “active citizens” is what being a Jayhawk is all about.

“Make a good living but more importantly, make a good life for yourself and those around you,” she said. “In other words, Jayhawks, when you leave here today, think about William McNulty. Run toward people in need, run toward the situations where you can make a difference or you can bring order from chaos. Use the knowledge and the sense of civic responsibility you develop here to improve the situations to help people, and to make the world a better place.”