The Harvard Gazette

Commencement 2011

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“Transformation comes from within,” said Ela Bhatt, whose union work with the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) of India has transformed the lives of more than a million women in her country. Bhatt was honored on May 27 with the Radcliffe Medal.

Transforming from within

In Radcliffe Day address, women’s organizer urges empowerment

World|

DateMay 27, 2011July 19, 2019

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman president of an African nation, gave the Commencement address at Thursday’s (May 26) afternoon ceremonies in Harvard’s Tercentenary Theatre. She told graduating seniors of the challenges she faced and urged them to be fearless when facing the future. "I always maintained the conviction that my country and people are so much better than our recent history indicates,” said the Liberian president.

A difficult journey, a brighter future

Liberia’s president tells Harvard graduates to dream big

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011June 26, 2019

Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian brings events to order at the start of Harvard's 360th Commencement.

Moments that make Commencement

Tales of centenarian alumni, tuxedoed guides, playful students, and angry squirrels

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011July 26, 2019

The president of the Harvard Alumni Association today (May 26) announced the results of the annual election of new members of the Harvard Board of Overseers.

Overseers 2011 election results

Harvard Board Of Overseers announces new members

News|

DateMay 26, 2011

President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (left) arrives in the Yard. Sirleaf was chosen as the speaker for Harvard's Afternoon Exercises.

Text of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s speech

Harvard Commencement remarks (as prepared for delivery)

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011

“Expertise alone will not solve the difficult problems that we face today,” Paul Farmer said in his Commencement address at Harvard Kennedy School. What graduates must now learn is how to work with communities on the ground to solve systemic problems.

Accompanying the underserved

Good policy is made on the ground, Farmer tells HKS graduates

World|

DateMay 26, 2011July 10, 2019

CES announces student grant winners

News|

DateMay 26, 2011

“This experience is a missed opportunity in my life, recaptured,” said Extension School graduate Ethel Stafford. Stafford studied under Harvard lecturer Tim McCarthy (left) at the Bard College Clemente Course in the Humanities for low-income adults before he encouraged her to apply at the Extension School.

A lifelong learner

Stafford graduates from Extension School with plans for new career

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011June 18, 2019

“With gratitude, we bestow our highest honor on a woman who has worked tirelessly for social change for more than four decades. Her ideas have spread across the developing world, transforming theory and practice, and improving the lives of millions of women and their families,” said Dean Barbara J. Grosz. “Ela Bhatt epitomizes the institute’s commitment to advancing knowledge and applying it to improve the world.”

Strong voices

Radcliffe celebration to include medal for Ela Bhatt, panel discussion

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011June 26, 2019

Undergraduate orator Katie Coulson '11: “I’ve learned so much about what it means to partner with communities rather than viewing yourself as someone who goes in to fix things.”

Speaking for their class, to the world

Three student orators carry on Harvard tradition

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011September 12, 2019

Marcel Moran ’11 of Eliot House and Annie Douglas ’12 of Adams House, this year’s David and Mimi Aloian Memorial Scholars, will be honored at the Harvard Alumni Association’s fall dinner.

Thoughtful leadership

Seniors Marcel Moran and Annie Douglas named Aloian Scholars

News|

DateMay 26, 2011

Radcliffe Class of 1961 reunion co-chair Carol Lieberman recalled the day when Kennedy was inaugurated — she had an exam and a New England blizzard was blowing. Since leaving Radcliffe, Lieberman, like many of her classmates, has experienced many of life's twists and turns. "Sometimes life gets in the way of plans. I think that's true for many of us," she said.

Two colleges, quiet times

Class of ’61 celebrates 50th reunion with memories and musings

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011June 26, 2019

“My thesis began with a discovery in the Massachusetts Historical Society of a pamphlet describing an 1860 exhibit of the ‘Aborigines of South Africa.’ It caught my imagination and I wanted to contextualize it and the references it made to 19th century anthropology and life in Boston,” said Matthew Miller, whose concentration is history and literature.

Miller wins Radcliffe’s Fay Prize

‘Ingenious research’ on thesis is cited

News|

DateMay 26, 2011June 26, 2019

“What I prize most about being a Harvard graduate is the remarkable power of the network of Harvard alumni around the world,” said outgoing Harvard Alumni Association President Robert R. Bowie Jr. ’73, seen here with successor Ellen Gordon Reeves ’83, Ed.M. ’86.

Keeping connected

HAA presidents emphasize nurturing the alumni connection

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011

Bringing up the rear

Lichten has shepherded students at Commencement for 25 years

News|

DateMay 26, 2011June 14, 2019

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became president of Liberia in 2006, the culmination of a career of public service in Liberia that has seen her endure death threats, incarceration, and exile, and an achievement that made her the first woman head of state ever elected in an African country.

Harvard awards 9 honorary degrees

President Faust to present degrees during Morning Exercises

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011June 26, 2019

Wynton Marsalis’ appointment is the latest example of the University’s closer embrace of the arts since a presidential task force called in 2008 for a concerted effort to increase the presence of the arts on campus. “I am delighted that Harvard has recognized the need to make cultural literacy an integral part of its curriculum,” Marsalis said. “I hope that other institutions will follow suit to foster a deeper appreciation among all Americans for the democratic victory of our cultural legacy.”

It was a very good year

Harvard's year highlighted by innovation and historical benchmarks

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011July 19, 2019

The Lowell House bell, seen here, will join with bells from across Harvard's campus and the surrounding community at 11:30 a.m. and ring for approximately 15 minutes, just after the sheriff of Middlesex County declares the Commencement exercises adjourned.

Bells mark Commencement

For the 23rd consecutive year, neighboring churches join Harvard in magical concert

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011March 20, 2019

Extension School recognizes outstanding grads

News|

DateMay 26, 2011July 19, 2019

Guided by faith

HDS student to lead youth ministry

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011

Harvard Graduate School of Design student Michael Murphy spent 15 months in Rwanda trying out a constellation of new ideas: that architecture can play a role in reducing poverty; that good design can influence health outcomes; and that the work of construction can build dignity, a skilled workforce, and even hope in places marked by poverty and tragedy.

Fighting poverty, by design

Architecture in service to the poor

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011June 14, 2019

$Skier Marguerite Thorp '11 headed to Africa after stress fractures forced her out of the Winter Olympics U.S. ski cross team. “It was the best Plan B ever,” she said of her decision not to return immediately to Harvard. “I have no idea how I would have stayed with pre-med if I hadn’t seen the outlet of working internationally and working in settings of poverty.”$

Racing to find her passion

Her skiing halted by injury, Thorp expands passion for public health

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011June 26, 2019

The master distiller

HLS’s Jason Harrow hashes out big ideas on a high-profile case

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011June 26, 2019

All creatures great and small

Equine specialist will use public health master’s to aid animals, humans

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011July 19, 2019

Pianist on the rise

Virtuoso also has a gift for humility

Campus|

DateMay 26, 2011June 26, 2019

Comedian and actress Amy Poehler delivered the Class Day address, telling seniors that "we all know that Harvard is the Harvard of Harvard. And you can quote me on that.”

A Poehler-ized Class Day

Speaker peppers her remarks with humor, wisdom

Campus|

DateMay 25, 2011June 26, 2019

The Harvard of the dim past was small, insular, and guardedly parochial. Now it is a university of the world. Some historians say Harvard finally assumed that role in 1936, when it decided to celebrate its 300th birthday on a bright stage (seen here) presented to the world. Everything about the 1936 celebration was grand and represented “a seismic shift in institutional weight and presence,” wrote authors Morton and Phyllis Keller in “Making Harvard Modern” (2001).

Harvard at 375

Celebrating momentum in sciences, public service, diversity, arts

Campus|

DateMay 25, 2011March 5, 2019

Baby, it’s been a wild ride

Balancing course work and motherhood at Ed School

Campus|

DateMay 25, 2011

“It seems like a relatively simple question, but it’s quite daunting to answer,” said Shahar Ziv, one of this year’s student organizers of the HBS Portrait Project, which solicits written responses from graduating M.B.A.s to the question once posed by poet Mary Oliver: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Pondering a precious life

HBS Portrait Project shows different side of graduating students

Campus|

DateMay 24, 2011

Andy Parchman of Adams House reads the program prior to the service beginning. President Drew Faust spoke to to the Class of 2011 during the Baccalaureate Address inside the Memorial Church.

‘Finish your own sentences’

Invoking Gomes at Baccalaureate, Faust calls on students to chart unique courses

Campus|

DateMay 24, 2011

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