Katlyn LaCroix leans out from a row of fellow Providence College graduates as she listens to the class president’s address during Sunday’s commencement.

The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

Thousands of college graduates are heading into one of the toughest job markets in three decades. But neither the recession nor the lack of sun dampened the commencements held Sunday at the University of Rhode Island, Salve Regina University and Providence College.

Despite tough economic times, speakers encouraged graduates to shrug off naysayers, take risks and work hard.

“Be creative, imaginative, inventive, and bold,” departing URI President Robert L. Carothers told more than 2,700 graduates in Kingston. “Don’t just agree with people who tell you to be realistic, that your idea has been tried before, that it won’t work, that it’s too expensive … Instead, think for yourself. Believe in yourself.”

At URI and Salve Regina, two longtime presidents were honored as they prepared to step down in June — Carothers, who was named president emeritus, and Salve Regina’s Sister M. Therese Antone, who received the Regina Medal, the Catholic university’s highest honor. Both presidents were praised for improving and expanding their institutions.

In South Kingstown, gray skies and showers drove URI’s commencement — its 123rd — indoors for the first time in Carothers’ 18 years at the helm of the state’s flagship research institution.

The graduates didn’t seem to mind the move. They cheered, tossed beach balls and waved to friends and family inside the Ryan Center.

“This ceremony means an opening to a new beginning,” said Olinda Gacin, 24, of Providence, who was the first in her family to receive a bachelor’s degree when she graduated from URI last May. On Sunday, Gacin came with her relatives, many of whom had emigrated from Haiti, to honor her cousin Ruth Laurent, 22, the second relative to achieve this goal. “This is an accomplishment for our whole family,” Gacin said. “That’s what it means for us to be here.”

Carothers delivered the main address, and he encouraged the graduates to be independent and stand apart.

“What is it that allows you to separate yourself from the crowd, to become your own person?” Carothers asked. “For me, it has been the ability to say no. No to the status quo. No to the admonitions to go slow. No to pleas to be realistic … No to bigotry. No to injustice.”

SALVE REGINA conferred more than 700 degrees in Newport, as joggers trotted along the adjacent Cliff Walk, past capacious tents housing the graduates and guests.

“I’m really happy today,” Sister M. Therese Antone told the cheering graduates in a farewell address. She will step down shortly after her 70th birthday, after serving as president for 15 years. She has been appointed Salve Regina’s first chancellor, a position that will allow her to plan and fundraise.

“What’s next?” she asked the graduates. “You have to be part of the working world.” She said she would not dwell “on the collapse of the economy and pandemics.” Instead, she said, the graduates “should learn to recognize and seize the opportunities you will see each day.”

While some of the graduates may have trouble finding safe harbor in a sea of uncertain economic waves, Salve’s Alicia Lee Donovan will have no trouble.

She already has a job.

Donovan, who received a master’s degree in business administration in holistic counseling, works for Coffins Corp. of Beavertree, Ohio, and earned her degree while working.

A long commute?

“I did it all online,” said Donovan, who is originally from Warwick.

IN THE SPACE where many graduates cheered on the Friars’ basketball team over the past four years, family and friends saved their applause at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence for the Providence College graduates themselves.

The mood was festive as graduates accepted their diplomas to claps, whistles and occasional yells, the center nearly filled to capacity.

Wanting to be sure to catch Kevin Leonard’s eye, the children in his family donned bright yellow T-shirts that bore the image of Leonard as a 4-year-old attending his own father’s graduation from the New York Institute of Technology. “I saw them immediately,” Leonard, a towering redhead from long Island, N.Y., said.

Leonard hopes to put his bachelor’s in English toward screenwriting, making the commencement address by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Martin J. Doblmeier particularly apropos.

Doblmeier, a ’73 PC graduate, observed that many of the grads were teenagers when the Twin Towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001. He suggested that coming of age at a time when the country is on a constant state of alert uniquely prepared them to meet the challenges of the world ahead. He urged them to listen to their gut and immerse themselves in a community they trust.

Indeed, the graduates were acutely aware of the challenges that loom.

Gabriella Ferriola, of Westerly, savored her diploma and the hard work it took to get to that point. She planned to substitute teach for the next month, and hopes to land a permanent elementary school teaching post for the coming school year. “I hope I will get a job,” the 22-year-old said, a flash of worry crossing her face.

But for that day, she relished her achievement.

Providence College

Number of graduates: 980 bachelor’s degrees, 225 master’s degrees, 62 degrees from the school of continuing education

Interesting fact: List of future employers includes the CIA, FBI, State Department, O Magazine, Nestlé USA, Peace Corps.

Keynote speaker: Martin J. Doblmeier, ’73, award-winning documentary filmmaker,

“Sometimes all the noise and madness of our lives can drown it out — sometimes you need a little quiet to hear the whisper of your soul speaking the truth. But most likely you will not regret having the wisdom to listen — and the courage to act.”

Honorary degree recipients: Doblmeier; Sister Deborah A. Blow, ’79, cofounder of North Country Mission of Hope and founding member of Dominican Sisters of Hope; Maureen McKenna Goldberg, acting chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court; Michael Tranghese, longtime commissioner of the Big East; Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of James Madison Program of American Ideas and Institutions at Princeton.

University of Rhode Island

Number of graduates: 2,762 undergraduate degrees, 657 graduate degrees conferred on Saturday

Interesting fact: The Class of 2009 includes 28 veterans

Keynote speaker: URI President Robert L. Carothers: “Defend the right to be different. Robert Frost told us that ‘two roads diverged in the snowy woods and I, I took the path less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.’ Difference makes the difference.”

Honorary degree recipients: Charles D. Walton, former associate dean for the Office of College Opportunity and Support Programs for the Community College of Rhode Island; Jose Maria Neves, prime minister of the Republic of Cape Verde; William J. Brennan, ’85, former undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Salve Regina University

Number of graduates: 480 bachelor’s degrees, 168 master’s degrees, 27 certificates of advanced graduate degrees, 7 doctorates

Interesting fact: University awards its 20,000th degree to Rachel Ann Marden, of North Easton, Mass., who earned a bachelor of science degree in marketing, with a minor in business administration and studio art.

Keynote speaker: Judge Bruce M. Selya, “Life is an uneven road. Everyone hits potholes and drives down a blind alley. If you turn disappointment into a learning experience and use it as motivation, it can take you a long way.”

Honorary degree recipients: Selya, longest-serving Rhode Islander on the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, honorary doctorate of humane letters.

kmulvane@projo.com