Becoming Part of Something: Owen’s Class of 2026 Crosses the Stage

Friday’s commencement activities officially celebrated a new crop of business school grads

By Scott Christian

Few events buzz with the frenetic electricity of graduation day. It’s one of those rare moments when the anticipation of a bright, wide-open future concentrates in one single room. And for Owen’s graduating Class of 2026, this moment truly is wide open. Or, more accurately, it’s a blank white page.

The business world is experiencing a paradigm shift unlike anything seen before. And it’s a shift currently yielding far more questions than answers. But that’s exactly the sort of space where a freshly minted business school grad can thrive. More than ever, we need new talent and creative new points of view. Minds ready to embrace a future that hasn’t been imagined yet.

“Your plan will not happen in a straight line,” Scott Barbour, MBA’89 and president and CEO of Advanced Drainage Systems, told the graduates in his commencement address. “Circumstances change. It will take a lot of hard work, difficult decisions, and honestly, a lot of it is simply grinding it out.” What is ultimately required is agility, he said. An ability to adapt to new circumstances and see hurdles as opportunities.

As an example, Barbour related the story of his son Ben, who was born with Down syndrome. Shortly after Ben’s birth, a pediatric cardiologist gave Barbour and his wife a bit of advice. “You can think of your son’s condition as a cliff that you are going over or as a bump in the road. That choice is completely up to the two of you.”

The Barbours chose to treat it as a bump in the road. “It is not always easy, and we do have to make adjustments along the way,” said Barbour. “But what we’ve received in return from our response is that Ben is the center of our family, an individual with a great sense of humor, and he keeps us humble and centered on what is important.” It’s this sort of agility, Barbour assured the grads, that will set the tone for not only how they would execute their careers, but also how they would live their lives.

The buzz and optimism blowing through the Vanderbilt Recreation and Wellness Center and Field House seemed to suggest that Barbour’s advice will very much be heeded. But there’s also a possibility that the palpable optimism was equally tethered to something just as important as a wide-open future: community. A topic that served as the focal point for Dean Thomas Steenburgh’s welcome address.

“Look around you,” Dean Steenburgh told the graduates. “The classmates beside you have seen you at your most capable and at your most exhausted. They have studied with you, debated with you, celebrated with you, and sat with you through difficulty. That experience is not incidental to your time at Owen. It’s among the most important things you will take from it.”

It’s not only a network that these students gained during their time at Owen, although it is certainly that. And it’s not just a list of names or a directory of contacts. It’s as Dean Steenburgh said “a body of people who know you, who believe in you, and who will be there when you need them.” In short, it is a community.

This is ultimately where the joy and electricity of a commencement comes from. It’s not that the graduates were there to celebrate finishing something. What they were truly there to do was to celebrate becoming a part of something.

See 2026 Owen Commencement Photos

Graduating Numbers

Master of Business Administration: 221 (49 Executive MBA, 172 Full-Time MBA)Master of Science in Finance: 103Master of Accountancy: 47Master of Marketing: 76Total: 447

Student Awards

Wesley Nealy, Matt Wigginton Finance Award

Caroline Prangley, Flournoy A. Coles Jr. Award

Aaron Varella, H. Igor Ansoff Award

Yohei Nakai, Financial Executives Institute Award

Chris Cavell, Martin S. Geisel Leadership Award

Owen Service Award: