Steven Hazel cries out to a fellow Johnson & Wales graduate as they enter the commencement ceremony Saturday at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, in Providence. During the event, speakers commended the students for graduating from an institution that calls itself “America’s Career University.”

The Providence Journal John Freidah

PROVIDENCE — Josh Richardson and his classmates at Johnson & Wales University aren’t about to give in to all the doom and gloom about the economy.

Richardson, who graduated Saturday, doesn’t have a job lined up, but he knows that with a bachelor’s degree in hand he has valuable skills that should land him a position somewhere overseeing construction projects.

“I’m not really worried yet,” Richardson, 22, of Westerly, said as he and his friends in the Engineering Design and Configuration Management program waited to collect their diplomas.

“Give us another month or two,” joked Corey Carpenter, 22, of Torrington, Conn.

Despite the tough job market and bleak economy, the 2,794 graduates of Johnson & Wales University’s College of Business and School of Technology were ready to celebrate.

As they filed into the cavernous Dunkin’ Donuts Center at 2:45 p.m. with friends and family members cheering, some of them raised their arms and literally jumped for joy. One student had written “I did it!” on her mortarboard. Another’s simply said, “OVER.” The message on the large-screen TV above read, “Congratulations Class of 2009.”

Johnson & Wales awarded degrees to 7,009 students at three ceremonies over the past few days as part of its 95th annual commencement. The 3,409 graduates of the College of Culinary Arts and the Hospitality College received degrees Saturday morning. A ceremony was held last Thursday for the 806 graduates of the Alan Shawn Feinstein Graduate School and the School of Education.

During Saturday afternoon’s event, speakers commended the students for graduating from an institution that calls itself “America’s Career University.”

In his invocation, the Rev. Jeffrey Larsen, of Barrington Congregational Church, echoed the words of the university’s founders, Gertrude Johnson and Mary Wales, whose philosophy, he said, was “to teach a thing not for its own sake but as preparation for what lies ahead.”

“You have now been deemed prepared,” he told the graduates.

Evan A. Lemoine, an accounting major from Woonsocket who delivered the student address, told his classmates that they needed to be patient and accept mistakes, especially in the challenging world they are entering.

“Today as we leave Johnson and Wales we face a weak global economy,” he said. “How we handle this will determine our fate.”

Attorney Dana H. Gaebe, a trustee of Johnson & Wales whose father was a past president of the university, gave the commencement speech after being given an honorary doctor of business administration degree. Christopher W. Bodine, retired president of CVS Caremark Health Services, was also awarded the same honorary degree.

Gaebe had straightforward advice for the graduates.

“Try hard. Be honest. Respect others,” he urged.

Those words, he said, “may not guarantee that you’ll be rich and famous, but they will give you inner strength.”

Al Caldarone, 38, of Glocester, got his bachelor’s degree while working a full-time job with the state Department of Information Technology. Over the past three years, he spent four hours in classes at night three times a week. Yesterday, he graduated with a degree in information science.

“I feel relief,” he said before the commencement ceremony.

But perhaps it won’t be so long until he’s back in school. He’d like to get a master’s degree and then perhaps a doctorate.

“Maybe I’ll teach,” he said. “Maybe I’ll even teach at Johnson & Wales someday.”

akuffner@projo.com