Commencement 2017 Archives — Harvard Gazette

In a talk with Walter Isaacson, Judy Woodruff recalled her colleague and friend Gwen Ifill: “I was in the presence of someone who was emblematic of the kind of journalism I believed in.”

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Radcliffe honors news pioneers

Medal awarded to Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff on day dedicated to journalism

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Among the graduates

Experience Commencement as a Harvard student in this 360 video

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Create a sense of purpose for all, Zuckerberg urges

Facebook founder returns to Harvard to gain a degree and impart wisdom to graduates

"I'm here to tell you finding your purpose isn't enough. The challenge for our generation is creating a world where everyone has a sense of purpose," said Mark Zuckerberg, who was the principal speaker at Harvard's 366th Commencement on May 25.

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Mark Zuckerberg’s Commencement address at Harvard

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Revelry amid the raindrops

Snapshots of Harvard's 366th Commencement, from dawn to dusk

“You too will face weighty decisions where the law and conscience intertwine,” former deputy attorney general Sally Yates told Law School students in her Class Day keynote. “And while it may not play out in such a public way, the conflict that you’ll feel will be no less real, and the consequences of your decision also significant.”

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‘When the law and conscience intersected’

At Law School, Sally Yates explains why she refused to enforce travel ban, even if it cost her job

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7,066 degrees and certificates awarded at Harvard’s 366th Commencement

Presentation of the honorary degrees is held during Morning Exercises on Commencement Day.

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Harvard awards 10 honorary degrees

Recognizes principal speaker Mark Zuckerberg among others top in their field

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Before turning the tassel, a look back

From huge honors to major milestones, the University in 2016–17 had much to celebrate

Class Day speaker, former Vice President Joe Biden, urged seniors not to succumb to pressures that value “the social trappings of success rather than really making a difference,” but to choose what’s best and most important to them.

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Apathy not an option, Biden says

In Class Day address, former vice president urges graduates to help shape the nation

Henry N. Cobb ’47, M.Arch. ’49, Warren Masters Little ’55, and A. Clayton Spencer ’82 will receive the 2017 Harvard Medal for their outstanding service and devotion to the University.

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3 alumni to receive Harvard Medal

Faust will present the medals during the annual HAA Meeting on Commencement Day

Now in her 10th year on the board, including the last three on the executive committee, Susan Morris Novick ’85 will succeed Martin J. “Marty” Grasso Jr. ’78 as president of the Harvard Alumni Association.

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A real sense of belonging

Incoming Harvard Alumni Association president aims to continue the people-centered leadership of her predecessor

Harvard President Drew Faust (left) and Gen. John Hyten at the ROTC Commissioning Ceremony. "You are receiving your commissions at a moment of extraordinary challenge for our society and the wider world,” Faust told the graduates during the ceremony in Tercentenary Theatre.

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Departing as leaders

Praise, counsel, gratitude for six seniors at ROTC commissioning ceremony

Harvard Chan School student Daniel Schlauch loved making data work for him, until he realized he could use data to fight disease. After he accepts his Ph.D. in biostatistics, he'll be taking the fight to cancer.

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For graduate the numbers add up

Daniel Schlauch is looking forward to the day when cancer’s number is up

For their many contributions to society, the Graduates School of Arts and Sciences is awarding the Centennial Medal to Russell Mittermeier (clockwise from upper left), Sarah Morris, Thomas Pettigrew, and Richard Sennett.

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Centennial Medals awarded by GSAS

Alumni honored for work in conservation, archaeology, racial relations, and urban sociology

More than 50 women and men will join the Radcliffe Institute as fellows for 2017-18.

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Announcing 2017-18 Radcliffe Institute Fellows

Meet the diplomat, the cryptologist, the playwright, the genetic biologist, and the University librarian

The clappers of the Lowell House tower bells

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The bells are ringing

Local churches join University in Commencement tradition

Late arrival Dean Rakesh Khurana (from left) greets Harvard President Drew Faust and
the Rev. Professor Jonathan Walton as they lead graduating seniors through Harvard Yard to the Baccalaureate Service in the Memorial Church.

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The gift of the art of noticing

Going into the world, see as well as be seen, Faust advises Class of ’17 at Baccalaureate Service

President Drew Faust (from left) and Robin Kelsey, dean of arts and humanities, listen as Sherry Turkle delivers the oration at the Phi Beta Kappa Literary Exercises. "Life teaches that presence matters," said Turkle. "People respond to commitment and deliberateness.”

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At PBK ceremony, a call to empathy

‘Life teaches that presence matters,’ says MIT’s Sherry Turkle, joined at Sanders Theatre by poet Mark Doty

Kennedy School Mason Fellow Agnes Igoye, M.C./M.P.A .’17, brought her fight to end human trafficking from her native Uganda to the Kennedy School.

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A Ugandan border official, redefined

Kennedy School gave Agnes Igoye respite, respect, resolve on her mission against human trafficking

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Birth of a peaceful Europe

70 years ago, a little-heralded speech at Harvard's Commencement outlined the Marshall Plan, which calmed a continent

Commencement Day student orators Auguste "Gussie" Roc, Jessica Glueck, and Walter Smelt III were chosen in a speech-writing competition to address Harvard’s Class of 2017.

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Meet the student orators

Their planned speeches explain how to overcome fear, remain hopeful, and stay bewildered

Damon Clark '17 is a Native American social studies concentrator. After graduation, he will travel to New Zealand, where he will spend a year studying the Maori indigenous people.

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Being true to himself

Damon Clark ’17 nurtured his Native American identity from Harvard’s environment and resources

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Forging her path through different worlds

Margaux Fitoussi explored her rich ancestry while at Harvard Divinity School

Three Harvard faculty members talk about the book that they have reread the most and how their continued relationship with it has shaped them over the years.

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Books on repeat

Faculty share the literature that keeps calling them back

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Seminal speeches through the years

A 360° video re-creates the impact of listening amid a Harvard audience to Churchill, Kennedy, Rowling, others

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Speaking the language of sympathy

Bennett Capozzi ’17 experiences the refugee crisis and answers in Arabic

Obasi Shaw '17 submitted Harvard's first rap thesis, "Liminal Minds," which combines elements of Middle English poetry with issues of racial identity in America. “[African-Americans are] free, but the effects of slavery still exist," says Shaw. "Each song is an exploration of that state between slavery and freedom.”

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Making rhyme and reason speak for him

Obasi Shaw’s thesis is an exploration of rap’s meaning

William Butler, multi-instrumentalist for Arcade Fire, enrolled in the Kennedy School's midcareer master’s program in public administration to broaden and enhance the band's award-winning humanitarian efforts.

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Moving the needle

Arcade Fire’s Will Butler graduates from HKS to resume a musical career that also fuels humanitarian work

Eager to take advantage of the resources she wouldn't have access to in her native Zimbabwe, Julia Grotto '17 took every opportunity to explore her interests, becoming the program leader for Dreamporte, a campus kindness ambassador of Harvard College Faith in Action, and a research assistant with a graduate student's project developing 3-D printed lithium-ion batteries.

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Inspired by physics and art

Science and service satisfy Zimbabwean student's need to learn as she helps others

Decorated Army veteran David White had his first Law School class on his last day of active duty.

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A call to do justice

David E. White Jr. and his passion for justice, leadership and public service

While earning her third degree in the Extension School's sustainability program, Amanda Rich began working on a proposal to plant trees in low-income neighborhoods as a way meet Boston’s carbon emissions reduction goals.

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Being ‘smart’ about her education

Opting for a third degree, Amanda Rich found the Extension School fit the bill

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He set the stage for change

David Coletti followed acting into activism and now plans a career in social justice

Born with a cleft lip and palate so severe her parents were told she would not survive, pre-med and VES concentrator Elaine Dong wants to give children with congenital birth defects the same chance to achieve their full potential.

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Facing future with hands-on empathy for others

Pre-med student Elaine Dong ventures into land of visual arts, seeing value of both

Economics Ph.D. graduate Jisung Park focuses on the natural environment’s effects on society—a boyhood interest that grew first in Kansas, then sharpened in Seoul. Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

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Making sense of climate costs

In Kansas, Korea or New York City, climate and the public good are economist Jisung Park’s focus

Wanting his senior thesis to expound on his passion for music and his dream to help young cancer patients, Taylor Carol wrote an album of songs that served as a sort of “mentoring” on end-of-life issues.

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His music pierces the darkness

Leukemia survivor Taylor Carol draws on personal pain, experience for senior thesis of songs echoing childhood cancer

Harvard College senior Aislinn Brophy had never set foot on a stage until she came to Cambridge, but she has been on and behind the stage all four years as part of the first class to graduate under the Theater, Dance & Media concentration.

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New degree of difficulty challenges performers

Aislinn Brophy shines as one of Theater, Dance & Media’s first graduates

Born in a small Albanian town without a fax to send her transcripts, senior Eni Dervishi dreamed of attending Harvard as a child. Now practiced in seven languages, she has given her time to tutoring candidates for citizenship and will soon choose among several European internships granted through the University.

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The language of learning

Eni Dervishi’s journey from Albania to Harvard began with two simple words

Neurobiology concentrator Brooke Bourgeois '17 performs improv comedy and draws cartoons for the Lampoon, but she's spending next year in Scotland for her Michael Rockefeller Fellowship, which specifically discourages professional and academic work in favor of personal discovery.

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Funny how the brain works

Brooke Bourgeois needs more than one subject, one story, or one punch line to describe her evolution at Harvard

Dana McKinney, M.Arch '17, M.U.P. ’17, is an outspoken advocate for social justice through design, and already at work for Frank Gehry, GSD ’57, Ar.D. ’00. As president and of GSD's African-American Student Union, McKinney organized the School's massively successful "Black in Design" conference, as well as a surprise visit from rapper Kanye West.

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For her, home is the heart of the matter

Dana McKinney puts the power of architecture to work for people

Joe Biden, former vice president and six-term U.S. senator from Delaware, will deliver the annual Class Day address to the graduating Class of 2017 at Harvard.

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Biden named Class Day speaker

Former vice president, longtime senator to address seniors on May 24

Maille Radford ’17 is the first College graduate to earn joint degrees in chemistry and the history of art and architecture, and will pursue two master's degrees at the Art Museum at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London as a Marshall's Scholar.

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Art of combining chemistry and architecture

Maille Radford scores a Harvard first with joint degree combination

Mass. Attorney General Maura Healey '92 has been elected chief marshall of the 366th Commencement ceremonies. “I look forward to joining my classmates and fellow alumni at Commencement to celebrate the Class of 2017 and to recognize their achievements and readiness to make a difference in the world."

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Maura Healey named 2017 chief marshal

Massachusetts AG to lead alumni at Commencement

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Zuckerberg named Commencement speaker

Internet leader and philanthropist will address Afternoon Exercises

In anticipation of Harvard's 366th Commencement, new guidelines are set.

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Guidelines for Harvard’s 366th Commencement Exercises

Admission to Tercentenary Theatre remains ticketed affair, limitations put into place