Degree candidates take a group photo for the record on their way to Brown University’s commencement on Sunday. Spectators occasionally had to deal with some raindrops between the sunbeams. The Providence Journal photos / Steve Szydlowski

PROVIDENCE –– In events steeped in tradition, Brown University on Sunday presented 2,115 diplomas in lecture halls, tents, churches and other venues across its campus.

It began with the degree candidates and alumni marching exuberantly through the school’s Van Wickle Gates to the First Baptist Meeting House at the bottom of College Hill, where university President Ruth Simmons declared the school’s 241st commencement under way.

The meeting house, built in 1775 for worship and the commencements, is too small for today’s turnouts. The main event, before separate presentations of diplomas, is held on the College Green.

Among those taking part in the mile-long march was 97-year-old Davis Caldwell, who came from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, for his 75th reunion as a member of the Class of 1934.

Brown University President Ruth Simmons, center, stands with other dignitaries during the graduation ceremony.

Simmons, in her opening address, told the graduates, “I think your hearts are the biggest and bravest of any previous generation at Brown.” She said she fully subscribed to remarks on Saturday by Fareed Zakaria that “you have the intelligence and capacity and world view to tackle the world’s thorniest problems.” Zakaria, an author, columnist, CNN host and editor of Newsweek International, was among 42 recipients of honorary degrees on Sunday.

Picked to deliver senior orations under a sky that alternately yielded sunshine and rain were Noor Najeeb, of Mequon, Wis., president of the Brown Muslim Students Association, and Juliana Thorstenn, of Garden City, N.Y.

Najeeb, wearing a white scarf under her graduation cap, said she was struck by attempts, during last year’s presidential campaign, by parties across the political spectrum to sway public opinion “through the use of fear” — evidenced, she said, by attempts by some political foes of Barack Obama to falsely portray him as a Muslim, as if that were something bad.

The graduates make the traditional exodus through Brown’s Van Wickle Gates and down College Hill.

At Brown, she said, students know the importance of expressing their views, but not so loudly that they can’t hear or empathize with the opinions and circumstances of others.

“During our four years here, students of all backgrounds and nationalities have debated, petitioned, argued, engaged, protested, challenged and fought to break apart every preconceived notion thrown at us,” Najeeb said. “We have established a community strengthened by our differences and energized by our passion for a common good.”

Thorstenn said her years at Brown taught her the importance of taking risks. In her freshmen year, a friend persuaded her to audition as a soloist for a singing group, though she knew she could not sing. Why did you make me do that, she later asked her friend.

“He answered ‘If you hadn’t done it you would have been afraid to try for all the things that came after.’ ”

So true, she said. At Brown she learned you can’t do much of anything without taking a leap. “If we don’t put ourselves on the line and risk failure we will have wasted the chance that Brown has given us.”

Sunday’s commencement marked a special day for 46 students who were recipients four years ago of scholarships provided by philanthropist Sidney Frank, who used some of the income from his Grey Goose vodka to make a $100-million donation to cover the costs of the neediest students.

Jeffrey Esquivel, who was raised by his grandmother in Guatemala and attended Hope High School in Providence while the school was being taken over by the state, said that without the Frank scholarship he would not have been able to go to Brown or end up, as he did last summer, working for the investment firm Goldman Sachs.

“The recession is worrisome, and a lot of my friends are talented abut unemployed,” Esquivel said. “They haven’t had the luck I had.”

Another recipient of a Frank scholarship, Courtney Byrne-Mitchell, who grew up in Pawtucket, acknowledged she was fortunate; many of her friends, she said, are “freaking out” about the burden of the student loans they now have to pay off. Her major, she said, is unlikely to lead to a paying job: she is this year’s lone graduate of Brown’s Judaic Studies program.High School graduations

The first high school graduations of the year began Sunday with pomp and circumstance at Portsmouth Abbey and continue Monday in Middletown.

Portsmouth Abbey School held its morning commencement for 85 graduates on the campus of the private school. Daniel Flanigan, of Tiverton, who plans to study engineering at Bucknell University, is the valedictorian. Ray Flynn, former mayor of Boston and ambassador to the Vatican, was the commencement speaker. For a list of the graduates, go to projo.com

St. George’s School will hold its commencement for 88 students Monday morning at 11:45 on the front steps of the private Middletown school. During the ceremony, the school will announce numerous awards, including those in English, history, music, Latin and Spanish. The winner of the school’s highest award — the St. George’s Medal — will also be revealed; the medal goes to a member of the senior class who “through effort, character, athletics and scholarship has best caught and expressed the ideals and spirit of St. George’s.” For a list of graduates, go to projo.com

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Caldwell.

rdujardi@projo.com