PROVIDENCE — Sabine Stolle-Dobrott clutched a bouquet and a balloon as she strode across the Rhode Island College campus Saturday morning, her husband and two young daughters in tow.

They had come from Somerset to honor Stolle-Dobrott’s elder daughter Jasmin Monteleone, 25, of Portsmouth, one of 1,221 graduates to receive bachelor’s degrees under a warm sun on the college quad.

“Her journey was an unusual one,” Stolle-Dobrott said. “It wasn’t easy for her. She has a son and she wants to build a better future for them both.”

Monteleone’s son, Brandon Dean, 5, was coming to see his mother receive her diploma in communications, his grandmother said.

“She has been a full-time student, worked two part-time jobs and is a mother, doing it on her own,” Stolle-Dobrott said. “I’m very proud of her.”

RIC’s commencement celebrated countless students, many of them the first in their families to attend college, who had managed to earn a degree despite financial and personal obstacles. Frank Caprio, chairman of the Board of Governors for Higher Education, congratulated the Class of 2009 for their perseverance.

“Today, a low-income student is nine times less likely to graduate from college [than a middle-class student],” Caprio said. He exhorted the graduates to use their education to enter the fray.

“You have inherited a very difficult world,” he said. “When you are tested, the only way to meet the challenge is to become involved. You cannot meet a challenge by standing on the sidelines.”

Anthony C. Bailey, 43, who returned to college after working for two decades, graduated magna cum laude in graphic design and African-American studies. His mother, Algeria Bailey, a teacher and artist, flew in from Chicago to see him in cap and gown.

“Today is the culmination of a dream,” Anthony Bailey said. “I’d encourage anyone who is thinking about going back to college to do it.”

Governor Carcieri said the class formed part of the “proud tradition” of RIC. “You are part of a college that has produced many of the teachers, nurses and social workers, who have such a huge impact on this state,” he said. “Today, you have among you the second oldest student to ever graduate and the second youngest. This college continues to provide opportunity for people, whatever their age, to achieve their dreams.”

Elizabeth Codd, 18, of Barrington graduated summa cum laude in mathematics and will study the violin at a Cambridge conservatory this fall. Edmund D’Attelo, 81, of Barrington, received a bachelor’s degree in history. He first attended college in 1948 after being discharged from the Army but didn’t finish. He enrolled at RIC after closing his gardening business and retiring in 2000.

Nancy Carriuolo presided over her first commencement as RIC president, which also fell on her birthday. She welcomed members of the Class of 1959 and conferred two honorary degrees.

Mark S. Weiner, businessman, philanthropist and political activist, received an honorary doctorate in public service for his support of multiple organizations, including the Rhode Island Diabetes Association, the Special Olympics, the President Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation.

He thanked the college, especially the Henry Barnard School, a school housed on the campus where education students learn to teach.

“Fifty years ago, my parents were told I was learning disabled and would never learn to read or write,” Weiner said. “At Henry Barnard, they gave me speech therapy and taught me. In the fifth grade, I entered the regular classroom. I would not be standing before you without the help of the Henry Barnard School. … I am an example of not only how great Rhode Island College is, but the difference a Rhode Island College teacher can make in even one life.”

Anne G. Murphy, a member of the class of 1959 and president of a Washington, D.C., consulting firm that specializes in public policy and the arts, received an honorary doctorate in humanities and delivered the commencement address.

Inspired by professors and classes at RIC, Murphy entered the world of politics and public policy, instead of becoming the classroom teacher she had trained to be. She worked for U.S. Rep. John E. Fogarty in an effort with U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell to establish the National Endowment of the Arts and the National Endowment of the Humanities. Murphy is now working on a new federal research program called the Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies.

She told the graduates that as they embark on their careers, they should “work for someone great, even if the job itself is not great,” “write thank-you notes constantly,” and follow their hearts when they pick their profession.

Murphy also offered a quote from Winston Churchill as a last bit of advice on being generous: “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”

“It’s your turn,” she told the graduates. “Begin.”

jjordan@projo.com