Carroll College celebrated its 116th commencement ceremony Saturday at Nelson Stadium, with 381 members of the Class of 2026 turning their tassels and completing their degrees. The ceremony marked another milestone for the small Catholic liberal arts college that has been a fixture of Helena's identity for more than a century.

Graduate Terra St. — whose full remarks were not available — offered advice to fellow graduates that reflected the practical bent Carroll students are known for: use what you learn every single day. The stadium setting gave families a familiar Helena backdrop for the occasion, with the Cathedral and the Capitol visible on the ridge above the city.

For Helena, commencement weekend is a reliable sign of spring — the hotels fill, restaurants on Last Chance Gulch see the rushes, and for a few days the city swells with families who drove in from across Montana and beyond. Many of those 381 graduates will stay in Helena to work, and Carroll's outsized role in feeding the local professional pipeline — particularly in healthcare and education — means the class will show up in hospitals, schools, and offices around Lewis and Clark County in the months ahead.