Marysabel Morales ’24 and her decorated graduation cap in the Academic Quad before commencement

The 571 members of the red class of 2024, most of whom arrived on campus as first-years during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, graduated on May 17. Student speaker Haley Lee-Burke ’24 delivered an address in the form of a letter to the College, inspired by the class’s first-year orientation theme, “Love, Wellesley.” “Thank you for giving me a space to learn, cry, and laugh my heart out,” Lee-Burke said.

Commencement speaker Michelle Au ’99, a Democrat member of the Georgia House of Representatives and a physician and author, encouraged the class to reject cynicism and find common ground with people from differing viewpoints. “As a member of the minority political party, anything I wanted to get done, I was going to have to work with people who disagreed with me on many, many things. But while we disagreed about methods, I found we could often agree on the goals. And working back from those shared goals is the best—and really the only—way to get things done,” she said.

After a year marked by student protests on U.S. campuses, including Wellesley’s, President Paula A. Johnson’s address, which called for intellectual humility, was received with both applause from the audience and loud chants in support of Palestine. “Sometimes, saying, ‘I don’t know,’ or ‘I need to study this more deeply before I express an opinion,’ is seen as a sign of weakness,” Johnson said. “But in almost every field, intellectual humility characterizes the true inventors, pioneers, and artists—as well as the most esteemed scholars and beloved leaders.”