Commencement 2014

Capturing a moment in history. During Commencement, Harvard Law School graduate Kristin Fleschner enjoyed the ceremony with her Seeing Eye dog, Zoe, dressed in regalia. Photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

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Harvard University: Year in Pictures 2013-2014

Harvard Alumni Association President Catherine A. "Kate" Gellert '93 announced the results of the annual Board of Overseers election at Harvard's Afternoon Exercises on Commencement Day.

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HAA announces new Overseers

HAA elected directors also named at Commencement

“I worry that a complacency is emerging in our society about the place of women, a complacency that too easily forgets that things were once otherwise and there is still a considerable way to go in American society,” said President Drew Faust, who before becoming president of Harvard was dean of the Radcliffe Institute. Faust was honored with the Radcliffe Medal during its annual fete.

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Faust says women should press ahead

Receiving Radcliffe Medal, Harvard president says progress requires avoiding complacency

Harvard University celebrates Commencement 2014. A graduate passes Littauer Building. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

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One ending, many beginnings

Harvard's 363rd Commencement brought together students, thousands of spectators, and even the 'Queen of Soul'

Delivering Harvard’s Commencement address, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (photo 1) called on the Class of 2014 to safeguard free speech and inquiry. President Drew Faust (right, photo 2) recognized outgoing HAA Executive Director Jack Reardon with a special Harvard Medal.

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‘There’s no easy time to say hard things’

In Commencement address, Bloomberg calls for safeguarding unpopular speech

Harvard placed 109 recycling bins and receptacles around the Yard to collect waste.

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A sustainable 363rd Commencement

Many hands help Harvard set the stage for keeping it green and clean

A video focuses on John P. “Jack” Reardon Jr. ’60, who will step down as Harvard Alumni Association executive director in July. In it he shares his memories as he looks back on 50 years at Harvard University.

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Reflections on a half century at Harvard

Harvard Provost Alan M. Garber (left, photo 1) and Michael R. Bloomberg, the principal speaker at Afternoon Exercises, prepare for the walk to Tercentenary Theatre to begin the morning portion of Commencement. President Drew Faust (photo 2) shares a moment with former President George H.W. Bush. Evelynn Hammonds (left, photo 3) escorts Aretha Franklin, one of the eight honorary degree recipients.

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Snapshots of a sun-splashed day

A roundup of capsule stories and photos from Harvard’s 363rd Commencement

Harvard Law School grad Elliot Schwab is a pop star ... somewhat. His myriad activities at Harvard also included songwriting, and Schwab knew he’d found success when he hopped into a Jerusalem taxi during a clerkship for an Israeli judge last summer, and one of his songs started playing on the radio.

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A man of many talents

Law School graduate Elliot Schwab multitasks, from music to real estate to Talmudic studies

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Bridging science and religion

Divinity School graduate and scientist Shelley Brown works to stitch together fields that often bypass each other

The Harvard Stem Cell Institute began with a group of about two dozen principal investigators in Harvard’s Schools and affiliated hospitals as a pragmatic solution to a political and funding problem and now is a world leader in the exploding field of stem cell biology.

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A decade of breakthroughs

Harvard Stem Cell Institute, initially just an idea, quickly became a generator of scientific discoveries

“While I enjoy seeing a patient in the office, I want to be able to impact populations,” said Darrell Gray, who graduates this spring with a master’s in public health and who expects to continue his work linking the medical community to disadvantaged populations through an appointment as an assistant professor at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

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House calls, without visits

With a master’s from the School of Public Health, physician Darrell Gray hopes to use telecommunications to extend care to underserved neighborhoods

Since kickoff of The Harvard Campaign, all of Harvard’s 13 Schools have held or are planning to launch events for their own campaigns. This is the first University campaign in which all of Harvard’s Schools will participate for the duration.

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Harvard Campaign on track

More than 100,000 donors have supported the effort to date

Harvard Assistant Professor Luke Bornn teaches a statistics class on big data in Stone Hall in Quincy House, Harvard's first House renewal project.

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House renewal and rebirth

A home again, modernized Stone Hall draws praise; McKinlock Hall nearly refurbished

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At 71, he earns his third degree

Henry Hacker, a lifelong collector, embraced museum studies at Extension School

“I’ve always felt a deep sense of community with Harvard alumni and am truly honored to be given this position of trust and responsibility," said incoming Harvard Alumni Association president Cynthia A. Torres ’80, M.B.A. ’84 (right), who succeeds Catherine A. “Kate” Gellert ’93 (left).

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Carrying the Harvard flag

HAA President Gellert passes torch to Cynthia Torres

Michael R. Bloomberg was born and raised in Massachusetts, growing up in Medford before attending Johns Hopkins University and then Harvard Business School.

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Eight to receive honorary degrees

University recognizes leaders in politics, arts, science, and more

Rossi Lamont Walter Jr. ’14 found a way to work with seemingly disparate interests while at Harvard: history of science, Jewish studies, and dance. "He has an unlimited desire to explore artistic expression in his dance studies and in areas beyond the field with tireless energy, curiosity, rigor, and focus," said Harvard Dance Program Director Jill Johnson.

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High-stepping through life

Dancer and scholar Rossi Lamont Walter Jr. ’14 aims to help others dream

A new 205,000-square-foot museum building will open Nov. 16, bringing together the Fogg Museum, the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, and the Busch-Reisinger Museum under a magnificent, shining glass roof designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.

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A giant jewel box, lit by the sky

Harvard Art Museums will open a greatly expanded and renovated home this fall

Moana ′Ulu′ave hails from Tonga and a rich culture of storytelling. Outside Harvard, she helped lead a weekly writing course at a women’s prison in Framingham, Mass., as part of a program run by Boston University. “For a lot of women there, education is redemptive. You’ve been punished, that’s why you’re in prison, and the only thing of your own that you have is your mind," she said.

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From Tonga to Tercentenary

Ed School graduate Moana ′Ulu′ave is bringing her storytelling culture to a wider world

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A laser focus on freedom

Jieun Baek, graduating from the Kennedy School, is determined to help open North Korea

Both Donald Pfister (left) and Rakesh Khurana believe strongly that an important role for the dean is to foster and build the College community of learning. “My goals were modest in a way, but they were really about reaching out and connecting with the students, and working within the College to make sure we weren’t merely in a transition, but moving the College forward,” said Pfister, who now turns the reins over to Khurana.

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The community builders

Deans Pfister and Khurana, from differing backgrounds, share the goal of fostering belonging, learning, and excellence in the College

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7,334 degrees, certificates awarded at Harvard’s 363rd Commencement

Approximately 30,000 alumni give to the Harvard College Fund every year, in large part to reconnect with the community they once knew as students.

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Motivated by impact

More than 700 alumni volunteers ask peers to join in aiding Harvard Campaign

Harvard lost some giants this year, but made gains with the nearing completion of the Harvard Art Museums, the detection of gravitational waves by Harvard researchers, and notable guests such as Arianna Huffington and Malala Yousafzai. And when the Class of 2018 turns up to campus in the fall, it will be the one of the most diverse ever admitted to Harvard College.

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Going forward, a look back

The Harvard Campaign, milestones in the arts, and scientific breakthroughs marked 2013-14 at Harvard

Harvard President Drew Faust, who will receive the Radcliffe Medal, was the founding dean of the Radcliffe Institute. Her tenure built on the rich traditions and important legacies of Radcliffe College and the Bunting Institute to establish a vibrant scholarly, scientific, and artistic community.

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A celebration of ideas

Radcliffe Institute turns 15, with 900 of its closest friends

Seniors pose for the 1914 Harvard Class Album. Those sweet Commencement days marked a last, soon-lost innocence for Harvard, for Radcliffe, and for students everywhere. The world was on the verge of the first global war, which killed 16 million people and lit the fuse on wars to follow.

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In 1914, poised for war

Many of the joyous students graduating a century ago would later be drawn into a rising world conflict, in which some of them would die

"There is no straight path from your seat today to where you are going," Sandberg told College seniors. "Don’t try to draw that line."

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Lean in, speak out

At Class Day, Facebook COO Sandberg focuses on hard truths

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Learning from nature, native peoples

Design School's Natalia Gaerlan finds tools to use on climate change in cultures tackling similar problems

2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the Centennial Medal, first awarded in 1989 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. This year, the medal is awarded to Bruce Alberts ’60, Ph.D. ’66 (clockwise from left), Judith Lasker, Ph.D. ’76, Leo Marx ’41, Ph.D. ’50, and Keith Christiansen, Ph.D. ’77.

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GSAS honors four with Centennial Medals

Scholars receive highest honor for achievements

“You will honor the service and sacrifice of those who came before you through your own commitment,” said President Drew Faust (photo 2) in her remarks at the ROTC Commissioning Ceremony, where seven soon-to-be Harvard graduates, including Taylor Evans (photo 3), received their first military assignments.

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Moving on to the military

Ceremony launches seven ROTC graduates in Marines, Navy, Air Force

“My thought process was, I’ve been taking Latin since middle school and I figure I’m going to get nothing out of it unless I did something like this,” said Timothy Barry-Heffernan, who will deliver the Latin oration.

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Their memories and hopes

A budding mathematician, an international thinker, and a creative achiever are the student speakers at this year’s Morning Exercises

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An immigrant triumph

After leaving Brazil at age 11, Eric Westphal '14 learned English and started up life's ladder

“College was something I thought would be impossible … because there were no examples of people going to college from my neighborhood,” said Jesse Sanchez.

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A hand up to a better future

Raised in a rough neighborhood, Jesse Sanchez ’14 plans to help others as he was helped

After the sheriff of Middlesex County declares Harvard's Commencement Exercises adjourned, bells throughout Cambridge and across the river will ring for 15 minutes. It's a tradition that has held constant for 26 years.

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Listen for the bells

Bells mark Harvard’s Commencement and years of tradition

Never far apart for long, fraternal twins Rosh (left) and Roshan Sethi share an apartment in Brookline and, after leaving Harvard Medical School, will take up jobs at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, respectively.

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Partners, from grade school to Medical School

Now, twins Rosh and Roshan Sethi are diverging on their future specialties

Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister Jonathan Walton and Harvard President Drew Faust led a procession (photo 1) into Memorial Church for the annual Baccalaureate Service, during which Faust urged seniors like Katie Hernandez (left, photo 2) and Caroline Davis to “break good,” “face outward,” and act for the betterment of the larger community. “This week is neither one of culmination nor conclusion," said Walton in his talk. "It is Commencement. It is just the beginning.”

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The import of ‘Breaking Good’

At Baccalaureate, Faust urges graduates to ‘face outward,’ foster community

For the 224th Phi Beta Kappa Literary Exercises, President Drew Faust (center) hosted novelist and short story writer Andrea Barrett (left) and poet, translator, and critic Donald Revell (at podium), who read from his collection “Pennyweight Windows.”

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Celebrating the intellect

Poet, novelist offer inspirations during Phi Beta Kappa ceremony

Here’s a look at where the University and the world that it embraces are likely to be 10 years down the road in five key areas: health, science, education, the arts, and globalization. In many cases, as the examples below indicate, the future is now, and the road ahead already well-marked.

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Beyond the horizon

Harvard is making a difference now, and planning to lead the way in the next decade

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Beyond the horizon

Harvard is immersed in understanding the world and improving it. Here’s how the University is making a difference now, and likely will do so in the next decade, in five key fields.

Yeats and Bishop made Bret Anthony Johnston's summer reading list but, he said, "I’m eager to happen upon unexpected used bookstores, tag sales, and library fundraisers, where I often buy books outside of my typical reading inclinations."

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Summertime, and the reading is easy

Faculty members outline what they’ll be perusing during their downtime

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Tough as a rugby player

Shelby Lin ’14 pushes to be the best — on the playing field, as a math scholar, as a researcher

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History by degrees

In all shapes and sizes, diplomas of the 17th and 18th centuries provide glimpses of their eras

A molecular and cellular biology concentrator, Will Clerx said his interest in science began when he was a small child looking for insects in his Seekonk, Mass., backyard. “I was always fascinated by the natural world and exploring why things are the way they are."

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Research to lose sleep over

Will Clerx ’14 studied effects of staying awake on hard-pressed students

Harvard Medals will be awarded to three alumni during the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association on Commencement Day. Recipients are Anand G. Mahindra ’77, M.B.A. ’81 (from left), J. Louis Newell ’57, and Emily Rauh Pulitzer, A.M. ’63.

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HAA honors three

President Faust to present Harvard Medals to alumni for service

Sheryl Sandberg ’91, M.B.A. ’95, has been chosen as Harvard College's 2014 Class Day speaker.

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Sandberg named Class Day speaker

Facebook COO, author, LeanIn.Org founder to address seniors on May 28

"In my work with KIPP, I feel fortunate to be able to contribute toward helping students from our nation’s most underserved communities succeed in college and lead choice-filled lives,” said Richard Barth ’89, who will serve as chief marshal of Commencement.

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Richard Barth ’89 named Commencement’s chief marshal

CEO works with underserved students through KIPP Foundation

Michael R. Bloomberg, M.B.A. ’66, will be the principal speaker at the Afternoon Exercises of Harvard's 363rd Commencement on May 29.

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Bloomberg named Commencement speaker

Founded global information company, became three-term mayor of NYC

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Harvard’s 363rd Commencement

A special notice for tickets, guidelines, and deadlines