Freddie Hornedo, C'14, student speaker, addresses fellow graduates at School of Professional & Continuing Studies Commencement exercises

Freddie Hornedo, C’14, walked at School of Professional & Continuing Studies Commencement Exercises on Saturday, May 9, but he graduated summa cum laude in December 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in information technology management and a minor in business.

Hornedo was selected as student speaker from among his fellow students to address the graduates at this year’s Commencement ceremony. Like many of his fellow graduates, his path to completing the degree included several different study and career stops along the way.

He earned a technical certificate from Towson University in 1998, then went to work for TEKsystems, an information technology staffing and services company, in Maryland.

He spent six years with the Apex Tool Group in systems administration and management. In 2011 he started work for the U.S. Department of Justice as an information technology specialist, providing systems administration to approximately 250 users.

And Hornedo is owner and co-founder of Hornedo Business Consulting, an e-marketing company he started with his wife, Jessica, to serve small to medium-sized businesses.

Dean Narduzzi introduced Hornedo as an information technology professional, although he chose to use to word it differently: “If you had the opportunity to view Freddie’s vita, the word ‘techy’ will fly out at you. There are words on his vita that are completely foreign to me but mere daily responsibilities to him.”

Despite this “techy” background, Hornedo chose to use a Greek term from classical rhetoric to frame his remarks to his fellow students.

I realized that it doesn’t matter what could have been. What matters right now is this moment in time. There is a word in Greek called kairos. It’s sometimes used to describe an opportune moment in time… a supreme moment. We stepped into that kairotic moment when we accepted the challenge at the University of Richmond and come out victorious.

Hornedo encouraged graduates to proudly display the product of their kairotic moment — their University of Richmond diplomas. “This is a moment that we will never forget, an accomplishment that you should be very proud of.”

Hornedo’s remarks represent in microcosm what a Richmond education looks like: the ability to apply a humanistic concept from a classical heritage to the technology-infused present. Kairos represents both an ancient rhetorical construct and a modern necessity, to take advantage of the opportune moment while the moment is fresh and alive.