BALTIMORE (WJZ)– More than 500 Stevenson University students received their degrees on Friday with the message to choose their path in life.

As Gigi Barnett explains, it’s a message their keynote speaker, author Wes Moore, knows well.

Cameras and iPads captured the moment at Stevenson University’s commencement ceremony.

But before graduates turned their tassels, their keynote speaker– author and Baltimore native Wes Moore– delivered a challenge to choose their own path.

“You’ve got to be the one who answers that question in your own heart and in your own mind as to what makes sense and what will bring you peace,” Moore said.

It’s a decision Moore made years ago.

He penned the bestseller “The Other Wes Moore” — a book about two young men with the same name on different life paths.

Moore ended up attending Johns Hopkins University and serving as an Army paratrooper in Afghanistan.

The other Wes Moore is behind bars, convicted of killing off-duty Baltimore police officer.

“I loved when he said that our degree was important, but what we do with it is paramount. That really stuck with me,” Bailly Shuster, a Stevenson graduate, said.

For Moore, this visit to Stevenson University is a chance to get back to Baltimore.

“I love being back home, and I was just saying– especially for a kid who received an honorary doctorate– they cannot believe it,” he said.

Stevenson University also awarded Moore with their highest honorary degree.