On May 16, 566 members of the green class of 2025 celebrated their graduation at Wellesley’s 147th commencement exercises.
Student speaker Nehal Farghaly ’25, an economics major from Egypt, said, “As we step into this new chapter full of choices and challenges, I want us to reflect on what Wellesley has left within us: not just a degree, but a way of seeing the world; not just skills, but a mindset to guide us wherever we go.” She added that Wellesley had nurtured three qualities in them: courage, curiosity, and perspective. “We have to be able to zoom out, to make sense of complexity, and to hold multiple truths at once,” she said.
To cheers from the class, Rachel Deyette Werkema, lecturer in economics, John Goss, associate professor of biological sciences, and Flavia Laviosa, senior lecturer in Italian studies, were each awarded the Pinanski Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
Wearing green slingback pumps and green earrings, commencement speaker Isabel Wilkerson, Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste, asked the class to consider their place in history. “Why did our trajectories have to collide with a global pandemic, with existential climate change, and with dystopian upheaval across the planet and in our own country? Why did all that we are seeing have to happen on our watch? Why now? And why us? I would suggest that there is a reason why the things we are witnessing are happening in our exact time on this planet. Because we are the ones who are made for this moment.”
President Paula A. Johnson concluded her remarks to the class with a charge: “Take a creative approach to life. Make things, build things, fix things. Find what you value, and stay true to those values. Enjoy your freedom, and spread that freedom wherever you can. Stay brave, and we can expect very great things from you.”
And with that, the class of 2025 was launched into the world.
2020
President Paula A. Johnson and commencement speaker Isabel Wilkerson
Sooahn Lee, president of the class of 2025, introduced the student speaker.
Nehal Farghaly ’25 delivers the student address.
Rachel Deyette-Werkema, lecturer in economics, John Goss, associate professor of biological sciences, and Flavia Laviosa, senior lecturer in Italian studies, were awarded the Pinanski Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
Watch the ceremony at https://www.youtube.com/live/H...
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