Commencement 2017

Today the University awarded a total of 7,066 degrees and certificates.

Harvard’s Afternoon Program speaker Mark Zuckerberg will be among the 10 who will receive honorary degrees during the University’s 366th Commencement.

From huge honors to technological breakthroughs, stunning triumphs to major milestones, the University in 2016–17 had much to celebrate.

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden tells College seniors to avoid apathy and help shape their nation, during Class Day speech in Harvard Yard.

The Harvard Alumni Association has announced that three alumni will receive the 2017 Harvard Medal.

The incoming Harvard Alumni Association president aims to continue the people-centered leadership of her predecessor.

Six Harvard seniors received inducted into the armed forces at the annual ROTC commissioning ceremony.

Daniel Schlauch is looking to put his talents with numbers to work fighting cancer.

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences awards the Centennial Medal to four outstanding alumni whose contributions to knowledge, to their disciplines, to their colleagues, and to society have made a fundamental and lasting impact.

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study introduces its new class of fellows for 2017-18.

For the 29th consecutive year, neighboring churches and institutions will ring their bells at the conclusion of Harvard’s 366th Commencement Exercises.

Graduating seniors gathered in the Memorial Church for the Baccalaureate Service, a tradition as old as Commencement.

Sherry Turkle was the orator during Phi Beta Kappa Literary Exercises Tuesday at Sanders Theatre. She was joined by poet and memoirist Mark Doty.

Agnes Igoye brought her fight to end human trafficking from Uganda to Harvard’s Kennedy School.

On June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall stood on the steps of Memorial Church and delivered an address that changed the world. The retired five-star general, credited during World War II with organizing the fastest and biggest military buildup in U.S. history, took just under 11 minutes to announce the creation of one of the largest and most successful international aid programs in history.

Three 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.

Damon Clark ’17 will graduate with a greater knowledge of Navajo history and culture and a renewed pride in his indigenous identity.

At Harvard Divinity School, Margaux Fitoussi explored migration as it echoed from her childhood and as it afflicts worlds far from hers.

The Gazette asked a few Harvard faculty to talk about the book that they have reread the most and why they keep coming back.

An impressive range of orators have used the opportunity of delivering seminal speeches at Harvard, reaching not only those in attendance but the nation and sometimes the world.

Bennett Capozzi ’17, a History & Literature concentrator with a Language Citation in Arabic, will travel to Jordan to master the language he learned at Harvard.  

Obasi Shaw ’17, an English concentrator with a secondary on computer science, wrote a rap album for his senior creative writing thesis, a first at the Department of English.

Will Butler of the indie rock band Arcade Fire will graduate from Harvard Kennedy School’s midcareer master’s program with a goal of helping others.

Julia Grotto ’17 combines art, science, and public service to paint a complete picture of her life at Harvard.

A graduate of West Point, David E. White Jr., J.D. ’17, came to Harvard Law School after a tour in Afghanistan as a lieutenant and platoon leader. At the Law School, he honed his passions for leadership, public service, and justice.

Amanda Rich found the Harvard Extension School a perfect landing spot for her third degree.

David Coletti is a peer adviser, a PBHA volunteer, and international traveler who says conversations have broken down barriers and fostered connections key to his time at Harvard.

Surgeries transformed Elaine Dong’s face and her future, freeing her to mix visual arts with the art of medicine.

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.

Childhood cancer survivor Taylor Carol found hope through music and turned it into his thesis.