Father Greg Boyle, a former pastor of Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights, received an honorary degree on Monday during Cal State LA’s 2026 commencement ceremony.
Boyle, founder and director of Homeboy Industries, also delivered the keynote address, reflecting on the importance of standing at the margins “with the poor and the powerless.”
“You will go from here, Class of 2026, and you’ll have the exquisite privilege to be able to stand with the easily despised and the readily left out,” Boyle said. “You will go from here and other voices will get heard because of you.”
Boyle was presented with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, which recognizes his “shared commitment to expanding second chances,” according to a statement from Cal State LA. Boyle and Homeboy Industries are longtime partners of Cal State LA’s Prison Graduation Initiative and Project Rebound, which support formerly incarcerated students through reentry advocacy and student resource programs.
The commencement ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium comes just one day before “Father Greg Boyle Day” on May 19 – his birthday – a designation established by the Los Angeles City Council in 2024.
At the time, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez commended Boyle for “uplifting those who are often left behind in our society.”
“No one should be defined by some of their most traumatic moments in their lives, and Father Greg Boyle acts on that every single day,” Hernandez said on the day of the proclamation, adding that Boyle has ignited a “movement that empowers individuals with the tools they need to regain agency over their lives.”
Boyle became a priest of Dolores Mission Church in 1986, at a time when gang violence was at its peak. Youth and adult gang-related homicides were drastically rising. About nine gangs were active near the parish.
By 1988, Boyle and several mothers from Dolores Mission created “Jobs for a Future,” which provided formerly incarcerated people with job placements and employment opportunities.
The project evolved into Homeboy Industries, now known as the largest gang-intervention and rehabilitation program in the world.
In 2024, Boyle received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
