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Rabbi Sarah Brammer-Shlay

Good morning.

Please stand in body or spirit.

We begin this morning by naming as a college that we are humbled to be neighbors of the Meskwaki Nation, recognized as the Sauk and Fox tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa through its purchase of land and establishment in Tama County in 1857, less than 30 miles from 51��ɫ College, and we acknowledge that we are on the ancestral territory of the Sauk and Ioway peoples, whose land was taken from them through the encroachment of white settlers and then formally in 1845 through government land concessions. We wish to pay respect to the Meskwaki, Sauk and Ioway peoples both past and present. 

We give respect and honor to all that allowed us to be here today as individuals and as a community. We give gratitude to all that has been learned and all that has been taught.

There is so much gratitude for everyone that helped all of you amazing students reach this moment, this moment of learning, this moment of community, and this moment of accomplishment.

There are so many to thank and acknowledge.

We acknowledge and thank the family given and chosen who believed in each of you, who showed love, support, patience, and at times, maybe even an assertive push to get you to this moment.

We acknowledge and thank the faculty who modeled so beautifully what it means to love to learn, what it means to love the act of asking really good questions. We thank you for sharing your wisdom and compassion with these students.

We acknowledge and thank the staff of this institution who have supported these students' learning through the many layers of attention provided outside of the classroom. We know that learning happens in so many parts of life here at 51��ɫ.

And last but not least, we thank you, students, who decided to make 51��ɫ College your home for these past years, who decided to make this your place of learning, your place of community and your place of commitment.

I want to say to each of you that you have changed this place by being here.

One of the most beautiful parts of what it means to build community is the way in which we each bring our individual selves and each of those selves ultimately changes the broader collective. Each of you have brought your own unique gifts to this beloved community and we are so much better for it. Thank you.

 So we begin this ceremony in a spirit of joy, of gratitude and of awe.

May we hold this day as an important marker of transition, accomplishment and communal celebration. May everyone here today feel a sense of pride in their hearts.May all of the students here feel pride as individuals and as a graduating class. May we use that pride to bring further love and justice into this world.

Amen.

[Audience] Amen.

You may be seated.

Todd Armstrong 

Please welcome the 14th President of 51��ɫ College, Anne F. Harris.

Anne F. Harris

Thank you, Marshal Armstrong.

Thank you, everyone.

In a poem read last night by Lívia Stein Freitas ��’25�� at the International Student Gathering, there was a beautiful last line that I want to quote to you. That line was “There are no small miracles,” and that is what it feels like for us to be gathered in here in actual rows with everything happening with the weather and the changes.

So, thank you all for gathering no matter what.

Dear graduates of the class of 2025, we are gathered here today in the distinguished company of our honorary degree recipients, of the esteemed and dedicated faculty and staff of 51��ɫ College and of your loved ones from around the country and the globe. We are here to celebrate you, to cherish you and to honor you for your achievements.

I will begin my welcome with a series of thanks amplifying those of Rabbi Sarah's.

First, to the faculty for your brilliance and mentorship and your care for each and every student in this room and for all that inspires, thank you.

To the … yes, yes! To the staff, for your dedication and stewardship and all that you make possible, including this day, with special thanks to the facilities management staff and the dining staff for moving mountains. Thank you.

To all the loved ones who are gathered here today, thank you for your love and support and we will have more thanks as we go.

Thank you to the Senior Commencement Committee, Essi, Deborah, Destany, Nam, Eleanor, Erin, Bianca, Anastasia, whose full names appear in your program, and to their multiple campus partners. Their sustained work makes this wonderful weekend possible and joyful.

Thank you to the 51��ɫ High School Band. For the wonderful music that ushered us in and will send us forth at the end of the ceremony.

Thank you to Jayn Chaney and Tish Solomon who have prepared for weeks to read each and every name of each and every graduate and to do honor to that name and to its history. They do so and we gather here to honor the members of the class of 2025 and their parents and families and loved ones.

Dear graduates, you are loved and celebrated by those gathered here today and also those who are unable to be here in person but have gathered from the following states and countries you let me know about through our livestream, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin. And Anguilla, Cameroon, China, England, Georgia, Greece, Guam, India, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Spain, St. Lucia, South Korea, Tonga, Togo, Tunisia, Venezuela and Vietnam. This is 51��ɫ. It is powerful to think of hundreds of people from all over the world watching this moment. We greet you with great respect and joy. In the powerful words that you will hear today and that you've heard over the past two days, my fervent hope is that you have felt the deep respect and high regard in which all of us gathered here hold you.

With this welcome and in all that is to follow today, I hope that you will truly know how much we will continue to admire you and champion you and love you as you persevere and strive and press on in your brilliance, your work, your beliefs, and all that you will accomplish for yourself and others.

Congratulations.

And now comes a very welcome time to honor the faculty who have dedicated their brilliance and efforts to knowledge, the pursuit of knowledge and the distribution of knowledge into this world.

I will begin with recognizing faculty that are moving to senior faculty status, as is my privilege to do so as the President.

Please stand as I read your name.

Kevin Engel, Associate Professor and Science Librarian.

And this next name I will read marks a historic moment for generations of 51��ɫians.

Moving to senior faculty status this year is H. Wayne Moyer, Rosenfield Professor of Political Science.

This year, we also have a special recognition of a faculty member who has made significant and lasting contributions to the college, Jennifer Williams Brown, as she will be invested with senior faculty status. And I believe Professor Brown, yes, is right there.

Professor Brown is renowned as a specialist in the history and performance of Baroque music, particularly 17th century Italian opera, but in many ways she is the epitome of a renaissance woman, whose teaching interests and talents range from music history to musical performance and from classical ballet to historical forms of dance.

Professor Brown trained in classical ballet at the National Academy of Dance and studied Baroque dance in Boston and has directed dances for several historical theater productions, including the 2007 "The Beggars Opera", which she co-directed with Professor John Rommereim.

At 51��ɫ, Professor Brown has taught music history and directed the Collegium Musicum, a vocal and instrumental ensemble that uses the college's excellent collection of early medieval instruments. That makes me so happy.

Professor Brown's research has focused on decoding clues in 17th century manuscripts and printed sources, then making the results accessible to current performers, students and scholars through the use of modern editions.

Please join all of 51��ɫ College in this very special recognition of Professor Jennifer Williams Brown for her many contributions as a teacher, mentor and colleague, thanking her for her distinguished service to the 51��ɫ community and all that she has made possible.

Professor Brown, you are deeply loved and deeply cherished.

I now recognize Jonathan Andelson, Rosenfield Professor of Social Science, class of 1970.

Professor Andelson is the first of our emeriti faculty status, faculty who after long, esteemed and devoted tenure at the college are entering upon that status.

Professor Andelson has taught anthropology at 51��ɫ for 50 years, helping to educate and mentor students through 40 different course and tutorial offerings, with special interests in intentional communities, religion, agriculture and human-environment interactions. His principle field research has been on the Amana Colonies in Iowa, a subject on which he is a nationally recognized.

(loud audio system hum)

There's fervor in the elements, there's fervor in the elements for you.

All right, I'm gonna wait.

We will hold the space.

Marvelous, thank you.

I was saying there's fervor in the elements for Professor Andelson here, but the Amana Colonies of Iowa, a subject on which he is a nationally recognized authority.

He has also done scholarly research and writing on the Meskwaki Nation and Iowa agriculture.

And with the Meskwaki Nation.

Professor Andelson co-founded, and for 20 years led, the College's Center for Prairie Studies, which is dedicated to an interdisciplinary understanding of nature and culture in our region's past and present.

He has been active in the broader community with organizations such as the 51��ɫ Area Local Foods Alliance, Poweshiek CARES, the Mayflower Foundation and the Iowa Kitchen.

For helping students understand anthropology and for encouraging us to experience the importance of place in our lives, we are honored to recognize Professor Jon Andelson.

Vicky Bentley-Condit.

I now recognize Vicki Bentley-Condit, Professor of Anthropology.

Professor Bentley-Condit is a primatologist who has conducted research with both wild and captive baboon populations, and captive research rhesus macaques.

Her prolific work as a researcher, writer and presenter enriches her students.

She has mentored more than 16 mentored advanced projects and student research projects and many of her presentations at professional workshops, panels and conferences are co-authored with students.

She has authored or co-authored more than 55 publications including journal articles, book chapters and reviews.

She is also a dedicated runner who has completed at least one marathon in every state and Washington, D.C.

Over the course of her 30-year career at 51��ɫ, her passion for teaching has intersected in educational and creative ways with her dedication to running.

For helping students explore what anthropology can teach us about humanity and for being a model of setting and achieving goals, we are honored to recognize Professor Vicki Bentley-Condit.

I now recognize Lesley Delmenico, Associate Professor of Theater and Dance.

Professor Delmenico's lived experience, including the 10 years she spent as a professional actor in Chicago, shaped her inspiring creative energies, scholarship and teaching.

At 51��ɫ, she has enjoyed a 25-year run as a teacher, mentor, director and performer, and has enriched both her students and theater arts in 51��ɫ and beyond.

Her teaching, directing and research focus on theater's political roles in contemporary society, particularly performances' intersections with urban spaces, the natural environment, immigration, gender and culture.

She directs and teaches acting, theater histories and performance studies, focusing on verbatim theater in which plays are created from interviews and oral documents, as well as theater history, post-colonial and post-war British drama.

Her students value her abilities and knowledge of alternative, world-relevant forms of theater that make her classes challenging and intellectually stimulating.

For being highly dedicated to her craft and her students and for sharing her own creativity and art with the world, we are honored to recognize Professor Lesley Delmenico.

I now recognize Evelyn Freeman, Assistant Professor of Physical Education.

Where is? Who is also a marshal for our beloved students.

Evelyn Freeman's experiences as a world-class high jumper were foundational for her 45-year career as a member of the 51��ɫ College athletic staff and the 40 years that she served as head women's cross-country coach and head women's indoor and outdoor track coach.

She led teams to 21 Midwest Conference Team titles and her 2006 cross-country team finished seventh at the NCAA National Championships, which is still the best national finish of any 51��ɫ College athletic team.

While her elite level athletic talents may have helped inspire some of her teams' success, Professor Freeman has always championed wellness, sports and team participation for individuals of all athletic abilities.

For helping students, faculty, staff and community members enjoy the benefits of physical activity and for helping her student athletes grow as people first and athletes also, we are honored to recognize Professor Evelyn Freeman.

I now recognize Will Freeman, Associate Professor of Physical Education and American Studies.

As a 51��ɫ faculty member, Professor Freeman's highly successful, athlete-centered pedagogical model of coaching has been the model for many other track and cross-country programs nationwide, and for his own student-centered classroom.

As a coach, his team won 31 Midwest Conference Team titles in track and field and cross-country.

In the classroom, he taught popular physical education courses and then turned exclusively to co-teaching in the American Studies concentration in collaboration with Professor Kesho Scott.

He is respected nationally and internationally as a teacher, writer and co-writer of six books and mentor to countless coaches and athletes.

For helping students find success in athletic competition in the classroom and beyond, we are honored to recognize Professor Will Freeman.

I now recognize Erin Hurley, Associate Professor of Physical Education.

Water has been a constant source of interest and purpose throughout Erin Hurley's life, serving as a lodestar in her various roles as athlete, coach and teacher.

Professor Hurley joined 51��ɫ as the head coach of the swimming and diving team in 1995.

She quickly built a reputation as a top recruiter and developer of athletes and was widely respected for her expert knowledge of the sports' techniques and training.

She took time to get to know every athlete as an individual and help each achieve personal goals in the pool, in the classroom and in their lives, and she enjoyed remarkable coaching success.

She led 51��ɫ teams to 39 Midwest Conference titles and among many other accolades, she was named Midwest Conference Coach of the Year 21 times.

Her teams were known for their class, sportsmanship, unity and excellence in academics.

As a faculty member, she taught swimming, triathlon, lifeguard instruction and first-year tutorial courses.

Throughout her 51��ɫ career, Professor Hurley has been a role model and mentor within the athletic department and a builder of connections across campus, working for the betterment of athletics and of 51��ɫ College.

For her many years as a caring coach, mentor, colleague and friend who shaped the lives of countless students, we are honored to recognize Erin Hurley.

I now recognize Kesho Scott, Associate Professor of American Studies and Sociology.

Professor Scott has been a scholar, activist, mentor, role model, and inspiration to 51��ɫ students, alumni and colleagues alike.

She was the first African American woman to receive tenure at 51��ɫ College.

As an educator, Professor Scott teaches students to be subjects of their own education and challenges them to become thought leaders, spreading positive influence for social justice on campus and well beyond.

A driving force behind the creation of 51��ɫ's new department of African Diaspora Studies, she is the namesake for the inaugural Endowed Chair in the department.

A most fitting honor for someone who has taught generations of 51��ɫians about the lived experiences of Black people across the African diaspora.

For her immeasurable impact through her scholarly research, her teaching, her community engagement and her activism, and her valuable and valued contributions to 51��ɫ College and far beyond, we are honored to recognize Professor Kesho Scott.

Oh, I love 51��ɫ.

All right, Laura, I now recognize Laura Sinnett, Associate Professor of Psychology.

Professor Sinnett has taught psychology to hundreds of students.

Many have gone on to achieve honors and to establish their own careers in the field.

Even more have learned that psychology can help them better understand themselves and others and pressing, real-world problems.

All have been touched by Professor Sinnett's care as a teacher and mentor, her expertise in her field and her interest in research.

Professor Sinnett's research has focused on documenting personality dynamics across time and situations, personality predictors of academic success and comparative trait structure.

Throughout the course of her career, she has earned more than 20 awards for teaching development and academic research and supervised more than 50 student research projects, resulting in dozens of student co-authored conference papers.

For being invested in her students' success, both academic and personal, we are honored to recognize Professor Laura Sinnett.

I recognize Jim Swartz, Dack Professor of chemistry.

Professor Swartz is a chemist, researcher and teacher by training and by choice.

It has been 51��ɫ's good fortune that he has also willingly answered the call to serve in leadership roles that have been institution-changing for the college.

Notably, his 10 years as Dean of the College and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

His accomplishments include helping create the nationally-recognized 51��ɫ Science Project, managing the Health Professions Advisory Committee, securing grants that helped bring millions of dollars to support the college's academic mission and research, and working to make student-faculty research opportunities a major distinction of a 51��ɫ education.

He also directed extensive renovation and expansion projects to the Noyce Science Center and co-chaired the committee that planned and oversaw the construction of the Humanities and Social Studies Center, affectionately known as the HSSC.

For his many years of teaching and his longstanding efforts to provide curricular, financial and physical resources in support of exceptional teaching and learning, and for his tireless service to furthering the mission of 51��ɫ College, we are honored to recognize Professor Jim Swartz.

Thank you to the 51��ɫ community.

Thank you for the love and appreciation you have shown our esteemed faculty.

Armstrong 

Family and friends, it is my honor and privilege to introduce our 2025 Commencement Speaker, Isabel Alexis Wilkerson.

Ms. Wilkerson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, National Humanities Medal recipient and author of two critically-acclaimed books, "The Warmth of Other Suns" and "Caste: The Origins of our Discontents".

Please join me in welcoming Ms. Wilkerson.

Good morning, 51��ɫ.

I am overjoyed and over the moon to be here celebrating with you as an honorary member of the class of 2025 on this glorious day.

You may notice the shoes.

Scarlet, in your honor.

Thank you to President Harris, to the board of trustees and to everyone who made this day possible.

Congratulations to every parent, grandparent, step-parent, foster parent, godparent, aunt, uncle, sibling and loved one, every member of the faculty and staff, and to my fellow honorands gathered here to cheer on the graduates this morning, the 51��ɫ class of 2025.

Give yourselves a hand.

Thank you for inviting me back to this beloved campus.

I was last here to speak in January of 2014 during a blizzard that was so sudden and so massive that the authorities had to shut down Interstate 80 and the college had to make emergency accommodations for me.

In the Midwest, where snow is just another feature of the landscape, that's saying something.

It gave me more time on campus.

Today, we can see that the prairie is still being the prairie, but I thank you for bringing me back when we can actually see the grass.

Back in 2014, it's hard to believe, but the members of today's graduating class, all of you were in middle school.

How different the world has become since then.

You applied to 51��ɫ in the before times, in the depths of the pandemic, and became among the honored few to get into this historic school in the first place and to be able to call yourselves 51��ɫians.

You arrived on this campus in the midst of masking and social distancing and the threat of new COVID variants.

You have bravely faced uncertainties in every corner, yet you set about your work despite the disruptions and the divisions of our era.

I am in awe of this graduating class and of the entire generation that is now entering the world.

If anyone, if anyone is ready for the challenges of our time, it is you, the class of 2025.

You have come into your own on hallowed ground.

You've been studying in a place that since its founding has been at the forefront of social justice.

Not only did 51��ɫ take its name from a 19th century abolitionist, but we are standing at the actual station of the Underground Railroad where people escaping enslavement sought refuge.

Even the bell that rang before the processional just minutes ago has rung every year since the 19th century.

The power of history is all around us if we are wise enough to learn from it, to learn from humanity's instruction manual.

The challenges we face as a species and that you are inheriting as a next generation can seem overwhelming.

They can seem insurmountable.

Climate change, the resurgence of hate, intolerance, war and famine on the other side of the planet and whatever pandemics may be waiting in the wings, the overturning of basic rights over one's bodily autonomy and whether or when to bear children.

The list is so long that it's not uncommon to hear people say that they feel helpless.

What can one person do? We as individuals cannot fix everything that is wrong on our planet, but we have more power than we know.

We have the power and, in fact, a duty to educate ourselves about the true and full history of this old house that we've inherited, the United States of America, and the world in general, the planet, to educate those around us and the next generation to be fairer and more just than the ones before.

We have the power to honor, to act with honor and to stand up when we see wrongdoing and injustice anywhere in the world, anywhere in the world, both here and abroad.

To stand up and to advocate on behalf of people who are oppressed and under attack, to extend help and benefit of the doubt to those marginalized and in need, those who have historically been denied, as did the founders of this college.

We have the power to harness our own strengths, to choose one thing and to do it to the best of our ability, to focus on what we uniquely know, focus on our area of expertise, whether healthcare, climate change, legal justice, whatever it may be, and use that God-given talent for the benefit of the world.

Perhaps most readily, we have the power to do everything we can in our immediate spheres of influence, in the circle of people that we have access to, in the institutions and the organizations that we become a part of.

One person has the power to influence everyone around them, and if each person harnessed that power to the greater good, we would have a different world.

On a campus that was part of the Underground Railroad, we could find inspiration for what I call the overground railroad, which unfolded over much of the 20th century and it was called the Great Migration.

It was a phenomenon in which 6 million Black Southerners defected the Jim Crow South.

They were defecting a world where it was actually, believe it or not, against the law for a Black person and a white person to merely play checkers together in Birmingham.

You could go to jail if you were caught playing checkers with a person of a different race.

They were defecting a world where in courtrooms throughout the South there was actually a Black Bible and an altogether separate white Bible to swear to tell the truth on in court.

The very word of God was segregated in the Jim Crow South.

The same sacred object could not be touched by hands of different races.

This is the world that they were fleeing.

The people of the Great Migration sought political asylum within the borders of their own country.

They were proxies for someone in all of our families who had to have done what they did just for us to be on this soil at this moment, whether they crossed the Atlantic, the Pacific or the Rio Grande.

The difference is that no other group of Americans had to act like immigrants in order to be recognized as citizens.

Think about those rice plantations and those tobacco fields and those sugar plantations and cotton plantations that were not so long ago.

We're talking about in the middle of the 20th century.

On those rice plantations and tobacco fields and sugar plantations and cotton fields were actually opera singers, jazz musicians, novelists, playwrights, engineers, defense attorneys, accountants, professors, and how do we know that? We know that because that is what many of them and their children and now grandchildren and even great-grandchildren have often chosen to become once they had the chance to choose for themselves what they would do with their God-given talents.

This Great Migration, the actions of individual people combined into a larger mass group, produced people whose names we might not even have known had they or their parents not had the courage to act.

Toni Morrison, Diana Ross, Michelle Obama, John Coltrane, Prince, Tupac, and in fact, much of the music that we listen to from jazz to Motown to hip hop might not have existed had there been no Great Migration.

From this, we learn the power of the individual decision, the power of a leaderless revolution.

We do not have to wait for a leader to tell us what needs to be done.

Here were people who had absolutely nothing, but by their actions, one person added to another person added to another person multiplied by millions managed to do what a president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was unable to do.

They managed to do what the Emancipation Proclamation could not do.

These people by their actions were able to do what the powers that be, North and South, could not or would not do.

They freed themselves.

And in doing so, they helped free the country of a formal Jim Crow system and put so much pressure on the country that it was forced to take notice and combined with the heroic efforts and protests of those who stayed in the South paved the way for civil rights and for the rights of immigrants, for the rights of women, for the rights of the disabled and other marginalized groups.

Yet the thing is that they didn't think that what they were doing was making history while they were making it.

They saw what they were doing as merely the best among the limited options of their time.

They couldn't have seen the magnitude of their private decisions and had no grand title for it.

Because they were right in the middle of it, they could not have seen how one person added to another person multiplied by millions could be a liberation movement all its own.

They are proof that we each have more power than we may have allowed ourselves to believe.

We each have the power to make history.

You have the power to make history.

If enough people of principle and purpose do the same thing at the same time, they can change a region, they can change a country, they can change the world.

You've been through so much the last few years, as has the nation.

We are not the same as we were four years ago when you arrived on this campus.

Hopefully we are stronger and wiser, but if we have learned anything from COVID, which loomed over much of your time on this campus, it's that an invisible organism without a brain managed to overtake a presumably smarter species because it does not care about color, it does not care about nationality or immigrant status or gender or national borders or passports.

COVID saw all humans for what we actually are, one interconnected and interdependent species.

COVID saw all humans as fundamentally the same.

It would infect anyone that it had access to long enough.

It sees what we have in common if humans don't see it for themselves, that we are all in this together and that it is time that we started to act like it.

So I ask that you imagine a world free of strife and division, a world of peace and belonging for all of humanity.

Remember that every song ever written, every skyscraper ever built, every feat of engineering, every invention we now take for granted, exists because someone imagined what to that moment had never existed.

History is not the long-ago actions of bold-faced names from centuries past.

History is whatever each of us did before the moment that we are in.

History is what each of you is destined to make.

The problems that we face are structural and systemic, but while we work toward those larger goals, let us find inspiration in the quiet power and bravery of the ancestors of virtually every person in this space, the ancestors who left their homelands to come to this country, whether from Ireland or Poland or China or Mississippi.

As you leave this campus to start your lives, I'd like you to think about a moment that had to have happened in nearly all of our backgrounds because we are here as proof of it.

This is the moment when someone in your lineage at about your age made the difficult decision to leave all that they had known and all that they had loved to migrate far, far away in hopes that life might be better.

Most of us are descendants of migration one way or the other.

It's just a matter of how far back in our lineage we have to go.

Migration is what people do on the cusp of life.

So there is this young person at a dock about to board a ship that will carry them across the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean, or there is a young person loading up a truck that will cross the Rio Grande, or there is a young person about to board a bus or a train that will carry them out of the Jim Crow South, and there with them at that ship or at that truck or at that train station are the people who raised them, their mother, their father, their aunt, their uncle, their grandparents, whoever it was who had gotten them to that point.

Those older people were not gonna be able to make the crossing with them.

As the young person in all of our backgrounds looked into the eyes of the people who had raised them, there was no guarantee that they would ever see them alive again.

Remember, there was no FaceTime, no cell phones, not even predictable long-distance telephone service and even if there had been, many of the people they were leaving did not have telephones.

This was going to be a complete break from all that they had known and all that they had loved.

And the next time that they might hear anything about the people who had raised them might be a telegram saying that your father has passed away or that your mother is very, very ill and you must return home quickly if you are to see her alive again.

That is the nature of the sacrifice that had to have occurred in all of our families just to be here and I'm convinced that they did not make that sacrifice to see their descendants at war with one another.

I'm convinced that is not why they did what they did.

So I wanna leave you with the words of Richard Wright.

Thank you.

I wanna leave you with the words of Richard Wright, the novelist, the poet laureate of the Great Migration who journeyed from Mississippi to Chicago in 1927 at the migration age of 19, facing uncertainties as are you at that milestone in his life.

He wrote these words as a whisper to anyone at a turning point, as a prayer to each of us on our journey that if the ancestors could do what they did with so much less than we have been given, then there is nothing that we can't do in our day.

And he wrote, "I was leaving the South to fling myself into the unknown.

I was taking a part of the South to transplant in alien soil to see if it could grow differently, if it could drink of new and cool rains, bend in strange winds, respond to the warmth of other suns, and perhaps, just perhaps, to bloom." May you bloom in both darkness and in light and may God bless you, the class of 2025, as you go forth to a world that awaits you.

Congratulations to you all.

Armstrong

President Harris, it is my pleasure to present those persons of high accomplishment and distinction to whom the faculty and trustees of this college wish to accord honorary degrees.

I have the honor to present Isabel Alexis Wilkerson for the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters.

Jerry Seaman

Isabel Alexis Wilkerson, celebrated author, Pulitzer Prize winner, National Humanities Medal recipient, and leading voice in narrative nonfiction.

She won the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing in 1994, a Chicago bureau chief of "The New York Times", making her the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism.

She was also named a 1994 Pulitzer Prize finalist in National Reporting.

She's known for her compelling interpretation of the human condition.

She's respected for her impassioned voice that demonstrates how history can help us understand ourselves, our country, and our current events.

Through her writing and lectures, she brings the stories of previously invisible and marginalized people into America's narrative and into the hearts of her audience.

With authority and meticulous research, she explores the need to reconcile the actions and policies of previous generations of Americans with the ideals of our national identity and the reality of lived experiences.

She spent 15 years researching and writing "The Warmth of Other Suns", which has been widely acclaimed for its powerful narrative of the Great Migration.

Among other honors, it won the National Book Critic Circle Award.

Her latest book, "Caste: The Origins of our Discontents", has further cemented her status as a preeminent thinker, examining the inner workings of an American hierarchy.

For her remarkable talents and compelling insights as a journalist and author and for using them to write about the lived Black experience in America, we are honored to recognize Isabel Wilkerson.

Harris

Isabel Alexis Wilkerson, on recommendation of the faculty of this college and with approval of the Board of Trustees, I admit you to the degree Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.

Armstrong 

President Harris, I have the honor to present Robert Hodierne, class of '68, the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters.

Seaman

Robert Hodierne began his 60-year journalism career by leaving 51��ɫ after his junior year in 1966 to work as a freelance photographer in Vietnam.

After a year, he returned to 51��ɫ, graduated with a degree in political science and then joined the US Army.

He ended up back in Vietnam with "Pacific Stars and Stripes", an unofficial Defense Department newspaper.

In the two years that Hodierne spent photographing the Vietnam War, he covered every major combat unit in Vietnam from the DMZ in the North to the Mekong Delta in the South.

He spent time on aircraft carriers and flew in jet fighters.

He was wounded once.

His photos appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world.

He then worked as a reporter or editor for newspapers, magazines, wire services, radio and television.

Among many awards he earned for that work, he was part of a team at "The Charlotte Observer" that won a Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 1981 for a series about brown lung disease, an occupational illness that afflicts textile workers.

For 13 years, he was an Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Richmond, serving as department chair for five years.

He retired from that position in 2021.

He now lives in Indianapolis where he has finished captioning and cataloging 6,500 of his Vietnam photographs.

For using his remarkable journalism skills and demonstrating the media's ability to speak truth to power, we are honored to recognize Robert Hodierne, class of 1968.

Harris

On the recommendation of the faculty of this college and with approval of the Board of Trustees, I hereby admit Robert Hodierne, class of 1968, to the degree Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.

I never could keep these on.

First and foremost, I want to thank the faculty, trustees and President Harris for this honor.

I can't tell you how much this means to me.

It means so much to me because I almost didn't graduate from here.

My grade point was so pathetic that for years, I joked I got the only honorary bachelor's degree.

51��ɫ ever granted.

Now this one matches quite nicely with that one.

But in defense of my anemic academic accomplishments, there was in the 1960s, when I was in school here, a lot to distract an aspiring journalists such as me.

There were civil rights demonstrations to cover, anti-war marches to cover, and in my case for a year when I dropped out of school, the Vietnam War to photograph.

How could analyzing multiple layers of allegory in "The Faerie Queene" compete with sitting literally at the knees of Martin Luther King as he spoke from the Brown County Courthouse steps in Selma, Alabama? The '60s were ugly times.

It wasn't all sex, drugs and rock and roll.

Civil rights workers murdered, President Kennedy, Dr. King, Malcolm X, and Robert Kennedy assassinated, cities aflame with riots, the war in Vietnam, college students gunned down on campus by National Guardsmen and police for protesting the war.

The day I sat where you're sitting now, 61 Americans were killed in Vietnam, most of them younger than you are.

That month, May, 1968, was the single bloodiest month of the war.

2,169 Americans killed on the way to a total butcher's bill of more than 58,000 and God knows how many Vietnamese.

But as ugly as those times were, there was nonetheless a kind of pervasive optimism among young people.

We truly believed that the civil rights demonstrations had led to the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

We truly believed that the hundreds of thousands of anti-war demonstrators, mostly young people, the hundreds of thousands who flooded the streets in cities across the country had helped turn the country against the war.

We truly believed, truly, truly believed what singer-songwriter Graham Nash sang in his anthem, "Chicago".

We can change the world.

We can rearrange the world.

You, you too face an ugly landscape out there.

You face a climate catastrophe of unimaginable consequences and you face the ugly knowledge that half the people in this country voted for.

As a result of that, you'll have to face down incipient fascism so you could be excused for suffering a kind of existential dread, maybe even terminal ennui.

You could be excused for that, but you're 51��ɫ graduates, elites, if you will.

Baked into our 51��ɫ DNA is a call to improve the world, to change things.

From the school's earliest abolitionist days to the graduates who helped shape FDR's New Deal, to graduate Joseph Welch staring down red-baiting Senator Joe McCarthy on national television, asking if he had no sense of decency.

And Robert Noyce's microchips changed everything.

There's Dr. Hoth over here that you're gonna hear from in a moment.

And most recently, Ambassador George Moose, class of 1966, a distinguished career diplomat and 51��ɫ trustee, he was fired by Trump as President of the Institute of Peace.

When Ambassador Moose refused to leave his offices, Musk flunkies brought armed police to escort him from the building.

So I know I really don't really need to hear me, you don't really need to hear me exhort you, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

You are 51��ɫians.

You can change the world.

You can rearrange the world.

Thank you very much.

Armstrong 

President Harris, I have the honor to present Dr. JoEllen Maly Hoth, class of 1962 for the honorary degree Doctor of Science.

Seaman

When JoEllen Maly Hoth started medical studies at the University of Iowa after her junior year at 51��ɫ, she was one of 10 women in her 120-member medical school class.

In 1969, Dr. Hoth started a medical clinic practice in Burlington, Iowa.

She didn't close that practice until 2019.

In addition, she served for 20 years on the Health Systems Board of Directors.

She also held a term as Medical Staff Chief and became the Medical Director for Great River Hospice when she was 70.

In recognition of her service, Dr. Hoth received Great River Health's Excellence in Physician Practice Award in 2010.

In 2013, she was named the Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois Woman of Distinction.

Now, six decades after she received her 51��ɫ bachelor's degree, this honorary degree brings her educational journey full circle and is a fitting tribute to a remarkable medical career.

For her tireless efforts to use the healing arts to serve her community, we are honored to recognize Dr.

JoEllen Hoth, class of 1962.

Harris

Dr. JoEllen Hoth, class of '62, on the recommendation of the faculty of this college and with approval of the Board of Trustees, I admit you to the degree Doctor of Science, honoris causa.

Well, good morning.

It seemed like I've waited until I was 85 years old to experience my first 51��ɫ Commencement.

But I want to thank the 51��ɫ College for this honor and for the invitation that allowed me to be here with you to celebrate with you.

So, congratulations to all the graduates, right? Yeah.

Now, I went to medical school from 1961 to 1965 and the only diagnostic radiographic tests we had at that time were a plain chest x-ray, plain film of the abdomen, see if you broke a bone.

But we had the patient and it was a major emphasis of my medical education to learn how to do a complete medical history and physical examination and then to take all of that information and to create a narrative to create a story that was unique for each patient.

And my skill in doing that served me well for all of my medical career and I used it in four different ways.

First of all, the information in that document created a wealth of subject matter about which we could have daily conversations about just life in general.

Secondly, it sometimes helps me make a diagnosis.

My favorite example, middle-aged man, married, two kids, worked in a factory, came to my office one day with an open, ugly ulcer on his hand and a big inflammatory lymph node in his axilla, but I knew that he liked to hunt.

Been hunting lately? Yes.

Did you go after rabbits? Yes.

Were you successful? Yes.

Did you field dress them? Yes.

Were you wearing gloves? No.

So I knew he probably had tularemia from an infected rabbit and we confirmed that with a blood test and got him on the appropriate antibiotic and never involved high tech.

Sometimes, that document helped me make an appropriate care plan, but most of all, it created a relationship.

These patients had shared personal and intimate knowledge with me about multiple aspects of their lives and they trusted me with that.

And they knew they could access healthcare through me.

They knew when they came they would not be judged, and they knew that we would have conversations initially as to what caused their current circumstances and we would have ongoing conversations about making appropriate plans for evaluation and care.

Now, recently I was enjoying a lecture by Barbara Brown Taylor and then it, she quoted a rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, and he said that the greatest single antidote to violence is conversation.

So it's my hope as each one of us leaves here today, and as we encounter one another, whether it be stranger or friend or just acquaintance, that we will each have the courage to ask a few questions and then to offer the gift of listening, the kind of focused listening that creates kinship and establishes relationship and allows us to go forth and have both authentic and respectful conversation.

And as adults, as we become more comfortable with this new skill, let us ask our children to put down their phones and teach them to go forth and do the same.

Thank you.

Armstrong

President Harris, I have the honor to present Jasmine Gilstrap Hunter the honorary degree Doctor of Social Studies.

Seaman

Jasmine Gilstrap Hunter is the Executive Director of Lion's Pride Mentoring, an organization she co-founded in 2017 to provide peer mentoring, leadership skills and career readiness for high school students.

Raised in Alabama, her early experiences shaped her deep appreciation for education and leadership.

Passionate about empowering students, particularly those from underserved communities, she focuses on helping them overcome challenges through mentorship and development.

Her leadership journey began at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee where she earned a degree in psychology.

During her time there, she held key leadership roles including Special Events Chair for the Black Student Association and Communications Director for Delta Epsilon Iota.

These experiences reinforced her belief that leadership is about creating opportunities for others to grow and succeed.

After graduation, she worked with Citizen Schools Illinois and as a math instructor at Baker College Prep, where she fostered a growth mindset in her students.

In 2017, she co-founded the Lion's Pride Peer Mentoring program, which she expanded into a nonprofit in 2019.

Today, under her leadership, the organization empowers students to become mentors, creating a cycle of growth and community-driven success.

Her leadership philosophy centers on empowering students to realize their full potential, making a lasting impact on both individuals and communities.

For her work, expanding opportunities for students, particularly those from underserved communities, we are honored to recognize Jasmine Gilstrap Hunter.

Harris

On the recommendation of the faculty of this college and with approval of the Board of Trustees, I hear by admit Jasmine Gilstrap Hunter to the degree Doctor of Social Studies, honoris causa.

Good morning, graduates, families and faculty of 51��ɫ College.

I am honored to stand before you today to accept this honorary degree, not just as the Executive Director of a nonprofit, but as a former K-12 instructor and on behalf of every K-12 instructor across this country.

This honor belongs to all of us.

When I began teaching in 2013, my mission was simple yet profound, to positively impact the lives of my students.

I wanted to give them the space to explore the fullness of their potential and to grow into the best versions of themselves.

I aspire to provide my students with the opportunities to develop the courage and confidence to taste their dreams no matter how inconceivable or impossible.

Our educational system is the crux of our students' success.

But today, we are facing unprecedented challenges.

The very resources that once helped my students grow, dream and thrive are disappearing rapidly.

In the fallout, I am committed to remaining steadfast in the mission of Lion's Pride Mentoring, to empower our young people to be the leaders of tomorrow.

One shining example of our missions impact is our own 51��ɫ College class of 2025 graduate at Essi Adokou.

Essi is a Lion's Pride Mentoring alumna whose journey embodies the transportive power of curiosity, connection and courage.

Through Lion's Pride Mentoring's program, I witness Essi's discover of her voice as a leader and today, she continues to use her leadership to uplift others.

Her story reminds us all that real success is rooted in progress and measured not just by how far we go, but how many people we bring with us.

I will never stop believing in the power of exploration and empowerment because I have seen how lives have changed when we develop these skills in our young people.

These are not privileges for some students, but rights for all.

These are not -- these are essential tools for true liberation.

As we live through one of the most challenging times in history, I challenge you to recommit to your values, speak your truth and boldly pursue your wildest dreams.

When we stay true to what matters and lead with purpose, we tap into our immense power to dream bigger and shape a future where every person, regardless of circumstances, can thrive.

This is the future I sought for my students back in 2013 when I first started teaching and the future I want to make real for all students now and for years to come.

To the graduates of 51��ɫ College, as you embark on this next leg of your journey, I urge you to keep learning, keep questioning, keep pushing.

In a world where success is narrowly defined by the status quo, your dedication to growth is a powerful act of resistance.

Though you are entering a world full of urgent problems, there is unlimited potential.

Be part of the solution, not someday, but starting right now.

Thank you, 51��ɫ College for this tremendous honor and congratulations to the graduates, thank you.

Armstrong

President Harris, family and friends, the Dean of the College will now present the candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Seaman

Will the candidates for the Bachelor of Arts degree please rise.

President Harris, on recommendation of the faculty of 51��ɫ College, I present to you these candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Having fulfilled all the academic requirements, they are deemed worthy of and entitled to this degree.

Harris

As President of 51��ɫ College, I now recommend to the Board of Trustees through you, Steve Sandquist, as one of its members, that each of these students be graduated to the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Steve Sandquist

President Harris, the charter of this institution states that the college's objective shall be to promote the general interests of education and to qualify young people for the different professions and for the honorable discharge of the various duties of life.

It is a pleasure for me to acknowledge that these students have not only completed a course of formal study at this institution, but have also come to know the demands and the rewards of a shared experience in learning.

As such, they have indeed furthered the general interests of education and qualified themselves for the honorable discharge of the various duties of life.

The Board of Trustees is therefore pleased to accept your recommendation and authorizes you as President to grant this degree.

Harris

By the authority vested in me by the trustees of 51��ɫ College, I now officially declare that having met all the requirements, you are today granted the degree of Bachelor of Arts and are admitted to all of the rights, privileges and responsibilities that it confers.

Congratulations.

You may now be seated.

Armstrong

President Harris, Tish Solomon and Jayn Bailey Chaney, class of '05, will call the graduates.

Will the graduates to the Bachelor of Arts degree please come to the platform as instructed by the Marshal.

• [Solomon] Istar Muhammad Abdullahi.
• [Bailey Chaney] Katie Liliana Acosta.
• [Solomon] Amelia Yi-Ting Adam.
• [Bailey Chaney] Essi Benedicte Adokou.
• [Solomon] Deborah Oluwakanyinsola Afeni.
• [Bailey Chaney] Daboh Ro Ahn.
• [Solomon] Evan J Alba.
• [Bailey Chaney] Ellé Albrecht.
• [Solomon] Tanner Jeffery Alger.
• [Bailey Chaney] Ejai Amor Alicea.
• [Solomon] Ammani Akram Alqaisi in absentia.
• [Bailey Chaney] Oscar Macy Angell.
• [Solomon] Alyssa Skye Argent.
• [Bailey Chaney] Alessandro Arioti.
• [Solomon] Anna Louisa Arriola.
• [Bailey Chaney] Ahmad Atallah Ayyeh.
• [Solomon] Ashley Hayoung Baek.
• [Bailey Chaney] Henry Ozro Baird.
• [Solomon] Giada Bambi.
• [Bailey Chaney] Cyrus Alexander Barati.
• [Solomon] Owen Elliot Barbato.
• [Bailey Chaney] Bartolo Barona, in absentia.
• [Solomon] Kathleen Mary Bartz.
• [Bailey Chaney] Maya Mendota Barut.
• [Solomon] Ella Armenta Battista.
• [Bailey Chaney] Cole Thomas Beattie.
• [Solomon] Yohanna Binyam Bedelu.
• [Bailey Chaney] William Dale Bell.
• [Solomon] Madeleine Kate Beltramo.
• [Bailey Chaney] Felix Bernardo.
• [Solomon] Ziana Pauline Benjiman.
• [Bailey Chaney] Destany Best.
• [Solomon] Nina Anne Bigelow.
• [Bailey Chaney] Josie Maurine Bleess.
• [Solomon] David Samuel Bluder.
• [Bailey Chaney] Ryan Boev.
• [Solomon] Isabella Santi Bonham.
• [Bailey Chaney] Ileah Bonzie.
• [Solomon] We will read the full citation once for the Archibald Prize and announce the remaining Archibald Award recipients by name. 
  
  The Andrew W. Archibald Prize for Highest Scholarship is awarded at each commencement to that student or students who have attained the best record of academic achievement over the four-year period of collegiate work. 
  
  Established in 1927, the award is named for its donor, the Reverend Andrew W. Archibald, who served as a distinguished member of the college's Board of Trustees. 
  
  The President's Medal is awarded annually at each commencement to the senior who exemplifies the ideals of 51��ɫ College, superior scholarship, demonstrated leadership that credits both the student and the college, compassionate and sensitive behavior and individual responsibility are among the qualities that must be demonstrated. 
  
  It is my pleasure to present the first Archibald Prize Medalist and the President's Medalist for 2025, Sara Caroline Booher.
• [Bailey Chaney] Caelan Holmes Bratland.
• [Solomon] Fergus Donovan Braun.
• [Bailey Chaney] Ruby Noriko Brent.
• [Solomon] Elias Rand Brotman.
• [Bailey Chaney] Joe Brown.
• [Solomon] Adah Lange Bryan.
• [Bailey Chaney] Luke Payne Bryson.
• [Solomon] Leo Malcolm Bucks.
• [Bailey Chaney] Jackson Martin Buhring.
• [Solomon] Elena Katherine Busick.
• [Bailey Chaney] Laila Terese Butler-Mills.
• [Solomon] Elke Liesel Calhoun.
• [Bailey Chaney] Jerónimo Camargo Ochoa.
• [Solomon] Hannah Coleen Cano.
• [Bailey Chaney] Evelyn Mireille Caperton.
• [Solomon] Monserratt Carbajal.
• [Bailey Chaney] Alexandra Elizabeth Carlon.
• [Solomon] Bradley Kenneth Carlton.
• [Bailey Chaney] Kevin Paul Carpenter.
• [Solomon] Sophia Susanna Elizabeth Carroll.
• [Bailey Chaney] Hayley Carson.
• [Solomon] Katherine Eleanor Carson.
• [Bailey Chaney] Thomas James Carson.
• [Solomon] Oriel Caruso-Thompson.
• [Bailey Chaney] Caroline Sara Cassidy.
• [Solomon] Joyce Daniela Ceballos.
• [Bailey Chaney] Benjamin Scott Cerrato.
• [Solomon] Milo Kaimana Chambers.
• [Bailey Chaney] Charlotte Chen.
• [Solomon] William Acara Chhim.
• [Bailey Chaney] Ela Chintagunta.
• [Solomon] Sungyun Cho in absentia.
• [Bailey Chaney] Yejun Cho.
• [Solomon] Aidan William Choate.
• [Bailey Chaney] Travis Chu.
• [Solomon] Ellianna Ruth Cierpiot.
• [Bailey Chaney] Elizabeth Mary Clarkson.
• [Solomon] John Theodore Clewett.
• [Bailey Chaney] Diego Coelho Rodrigues.
• [Solomon] Henry Gallop Coen.
• [Bailey Chaney] Eamon Elliott Cole.
• [Solomon] Wilder Goodwin Cooke.
• [Bailey Chaney] Miles Joseph Cornforth.
• [Solomon] Ethan Eugene Crawford.
• [Bailey Chaney] Francesca Crego.
• [Solomon] Beatrice Crist.
• [Bailey Chaney] Maile Worthington Crowe.
• [Solomon] Eva Maria Cristina Cuevas.
• [Bailey Chaney] It is my pleasure to present the second Andrew W. Archibald Prize to Benjamin Andrew Curran.
• [Solomon] Quynh Phuong Dao.
• [Bailey Chaney] Hayden Joseph Suarez-Davis.
• [Solomon] Tristan Lorenzo Davis.
• [Bailey Chaney] Mikel De Julian Del Rio.
• [Solomon] Maximillian Parker DeGeorge.
• [Bailey Chaney] Sophie Anne Delaney.
• [Solomon] Audrey Isabelle Deligan.
• [Bailey Chaney] Mira Esther Diamond-Berman.
• [Solomon] Sofia Francesca DiCarlo.
• [Bailey Chaney] Sherry Ding.
• [Solomon] Nam Do.
• [Bailey Chaney] Samantha May Drake-Flam.
• [Solomon] Qingshuo Du.
• [Bailey Chaney] Tony Qi Dwan.
• [Solomon] Hannah Marie Dykstra. 
  Libby Eggertt.
• [Bailey Chaney] Sophia Marie Elfrink.
• [Solomon] Eleanor Grace Elliott-Rude.
• [Bailey Chaney] Davitta Ashe' Adzi Embu.
• [Solomon] Yoon Ha Eom.
• [Bailey Chaney] Cindy Katherine Escobar.
• [Solomon] Kyle Fang.
• [Bailey Chaney] Adam William Feilmeyer.
• [Solomon] Ian Thomas Feld.
• [Bailey Chaney] Alair Frances Ferguson Hautzinger.
• [Solomon] Madeline Kate Fialkov.
• [Bailey Chaney] Adam Joseph Figueras.
• [Solomon] Kevin P. Fitzgerald.
• [Bailey Chaney] Sophia M. Ford.
• [Solomon] Luca Fornari.
• [Bailey Chaney] Olivia Philomena Frasca.
• [Solomon] Tessa Claire Fresco
• [Bailey Chaney] Agatha Pennyquick Fusco.
• [Solomon] Juliana Patrice Gaddis
• [Bailey Chaney] Ilisa Gala. Sara Kristin Garcia.
• [Solomon] It is my pleasure to present the third Andrew W. Archibald Prize winner to Sara Kristin Garcia.
• [Bailey Chaney] Octavia Ruth Hammel George.
• [Solomon] Dillon Gary Gestring.
• [Bailey Chaney] Grace Erin Gilday.
• [Solomon] Henry Joyner Gold.
• [Bailey Chaney] Camryn E. Gonzales.
• [Solomon] It is my pleasure to present the fourth Andrew W. Archibald Prize winner to Aryaa Ravikiran Gunavante.
• [Bailey Chaney] Jianyu Guo, in absentia.
• [Solomon] Nitin Paul Gupta.
• [Bailey Chaney] Priyanka Gupta.
• [Solomon] Camden Daniel Haaland.
• [Bailey Chaney] Theodora Lillian Hadley.
• [Solomon] Joelle Alexandra Haensly.
• [Bailey Chaney] Olivia Layne Hage.
• [Solomon] Andrew Haggerty.
• [Bailey Chaney] Payton Kennedy Hall.
• [Solomon] Akilah Hampton.
• [Bailey Chaney] Madeline Heller Hartog.
• [Solomon] Cadance Kendal Hawk.
• [Bailey Chaney] Ryleigh October Hayworth.
• [Solomon] Eleanor Jeanne Hedges Duroy.
• [Bailey Chaney] Almond Juniper Heil.
• [Solomon] Evan William Robert Hein.
• [Bailey Chaney] Kathryn Hickman.
• [Solomon] Mary Elizabeth Higgins.
• [Bailey Chaney] Samuel Milo Hiller.
• [Solomon] Quynh T. Ho.
• [Bailey Chaney] Simon Hodson.
• [Solomon] Jane Eliza Hoffman.
• [Bailey Chaney] Lucas Holler.
• [Solomon] Jio Hong.
• [Bailey Chaney] Lydia Hong.
• [Solomon] Makaila Jordan Hootman.
• [Bailey Chaney] Dingyuan Eric Hu.
• [Solomon] Jingyi Huang.
• [Bailey Chaney] Yiping Huang.
• [Solomon] Ethan Edwin Hughes.
• [Bailey Chaney] Areeha Ilyas.
• [Solomon] Jungbin Im.
• [Bailey Chaney] Hana Imanishi.
• [Solomon] Bailey Michelle Irvin.
• [Bailey Chaney] Yuina Iseki.
• [Solomon] Sydney Lynn Jacobs.
• [Bailey Chaney] Xavier Demetrius James II.
• [Solomon] Erin Elise Jarvis.
• [Bailey Chaney] Raj Vardhan Jhanwar.
• [Solomon] Zoe Geneal Hall Jiran.
• [Bailey Chaney] Toluwanimi Oladimeji Johnson.
• [Solomon] Elizabeth Bannon Jones.
• [Bailey Chaney] Gavin Jones.
• [Solomon] Princess Martin.
• [Bailey Chaney] Hyeyun Jung.
• [Solomon] Crystal Marie Kaczmarczyk.
• [Bailey Chaney] Kenjiro Kajita.
• [Solomon] Paata Kaloiani.
• [Bailey Chaney] Utsah Kalra.
• [Solomon] Sophia Kandalin.
• [Bailey Chaney] Emma Pauline Kaplan.
• [Solomon] Lal Verda Karaoǧlu.
• [Bailey Chaney] Corey Karasek.
• [Solomon] Timur Kasimov.
• [Bailey Chaney] Max Philip Kasten.
• [Solomon] Saniya Aditya Kelkar.
• [Bailey Chaney] Bennett Joseph Kelly.
• [Solomon] Matthew Leland Kenny.
• [Bailey Chaney] Sauryanshu Khanal.
• [Solomon] Anna Catherine Killin, in absentia.
• [Bailey Chaney] Alexander Joohyun Kim.
• [Solomon] Geonwoo Kim, in absentia.
• [Bailey Chaney] Hannah Minji Kim.
• [Solomon] James Kim.
• [Bailey Chaney] Seunghyeon Kim.
• [Solomon] Aiden James Klass.
• [Bailey Chaney] Kylie Rae Klassen.
• [Solomon] Karch Conrad Knoll.
• [Bailey Chaney] Rachel Lane Kohler.
• [Solomon] Nora Frances Kohnhorst.
• [Bailey Chaney] Reese Emily Komsthoeft.
• [Solomon] Andrew Samer Kozhaya.
• [Bailey Chaney] Charlotte Rummel Krone.
• [Solomon] Gloria Gbaranee Kuebee.
• [Bailey Chaney] Grace Elizabeth Kurtz.
• [Solomon] Autumn Kwon.
• [Bailey Chaney] Duncan Stratford Lambert.
• [Solomon] Nicholas Beatty Lampietti.
• [Bailey Chaney] Samuel Rigel Flynn Larsen.
• [Solomon] Evan Michael Larson.
• [Bailey Chaney] Khameron Dean Latson.
• [Solomon] Tracey James Lawrence.
• [Bailey Chaney] Le Anh Quang, in absentia.
• [Solomon] Trung Thanh Le.
• [Bailey Chaney] Tessa Rose Leahy.
• [Solomon] Beaufort James Leavenworth.
• [Bailey Chaney] Nicole Jacqueline Aucoin Lee.
• [Solomon] Scott Lee, in absentia.
• [Bailey Chaney] Lucy Mae Leither.
• [Solomon] Hana Jae Leonard.
• [Bailey Chaney] Jackson Christopher Leone.
• [Solomon] Jacob Thomas Lester.
• [Bailey Chaney] Thammik Lee Leungpathomaram.
• [Solomon] Lilli Hampton Lewis.
• [Bailey Chaney] Ryan Daniel Lewis.
• [Solomon] Xiangli Li.
• [Bailey Chaney] Yuxin Li.
• [Solomon] In absentia. In absentia.
• [Bailey Chaney] Genxuan Lian, in absentia. 
  Guochen Liao, in absentia.
• [Solomon] Vivian Axness.
• [Bailey Chaney] Andrew Anthony Nemsadze Lim.
• [Solomon] Havin Lim, in absentia.
• [Bailey Chaney] Rui Lin.
• [Solomon] Tobias Rhys Morales Lincoln.
• [Bailey Chaney] Alexander Linden-Ross.
• [Solomon] Chenxing Liu, in absentia.
• [Bailey Chaney] Haozhi Liu.
• [Solomon] Yinhang Henry Liu.
• [Bailey Chaney] Maya Rose Llewellyn.
• [Solomon] Roxanna Longobardi.
• [Bailey Chaney] Mariela López González.
• [Solomon] Maria Guadalupe Villa Lopez.
• [Bailey Chaney] Paloma Lu.
• [Solomon] Aziza Jerome Mabrey-Wakefield.
• [Bailey Chaney] Ian Andrew Nicola Macdonald.
• [Solomon] Dylan Imamura Maddux.
• [Bailey Chaney] DyLynn Kylah Ruth Madson.
• [Solomon] Levi Ezra Magill.
• [Bailey Chaney] Cooper Douglas Malone.
• [Solomon] Emma Sage Kumano-Maloney.
• [Bailey Chaney] Sydney Lee Marin.
• [Solomon] Grace Jacqueline Marsh.
• [Bailey Chaney] Kalea Solene Martin.
• [Solomon] Mykenzie Marie Masters.
• [Bailey Chaney] George Robert Matthes.
• [Solomon] Mac Charles McCain.
• [Bailey Chaney] Luke McCann.
• [Solomon] Nathan John McCurdy.
• [Bailey Chaney] Sara Juliana Meneses Pineda.
• [Solomon] Zeineb Mezghanni, in absentia. 
• [Bailey Chaney] Kyla Teeaira Miller.
• [Solomon] Bianca Awah Morcho.
• [Bailey Chaney] Margaret Mary Rose Morey.
• [Solomon] Lillian Rose Morrish.
• [Bailey Chaney] Ginger Ricci Mullen.
• [Solomon] Rowan Munson.
• [Bailey Chaney] Angela Arely Muralles Davila.
• [Solomon] Peter Kevin Murphy.
• [Bailey Chaney] Arya Murthy.
• [Solomon] Pyait Zaw Myat.
• [Bailey Chaney] Matthew Isamu Jun-Hing Nakamoto.
• [Solomon] Neill Tokuo Natori.
• [Bailey Chaney] Krishna Arikkath Nayar.
• [Solomon] Zoe Marie Nechin.
• [Bailey Chaney] Ella Newstead.
• [Solomon] Cady Ngo.
• [Bailey Chaney] Bryant Gia Nguyen.
• [Solomon] Nguyen Xuan Huy.
• [Bailey Chaney] Minh Nguyen.
• [Solomon] Austin Eamonn Dietrich Nicolas.
• [Bailey Chaney] William Salomon Norry.
• [Solomon] Mason Patrick O'Bryan.
• [Bailey Chaney] Jasmine Wenonah Oda.
• [Solomon] Melanie Amanna Oden.
• [Bailey Chaney] Oluwanifemi Inioluwa Ogunmesa.
• [Solomon] Yurie Okumura.
• [Bailey Chaney] Solveig Chun Wei Olson.
• [Solomon] Ella Joy O'Neill.
• [Bailey Chaney] Benjamin Orman.
• [Solomon] Aleksej Ostojic.
• [Bailey Chaney] Carter Andrew Ottele.
• [Solomon] Delaney Weaver Owens.
• [Bailey Chaney] Annie Paik.
• [Solomon] Hannah Ann Pallister.
• [Bailey Chaney] Francisco Pantoja Martinez.
• [Solomon] Eleanora Frances Papp.
• [Bailey Chaney] Isabella Terese Park.
• [Solomon] Debanjali Pathak.
• [Bailey Chaney] Michael Raymond Paulin.
• [Solomon] Hamilton D. Peacock.
• [Bailey Chaney] Kyla M'adeline Pereles, in absentia.
• [Solomon] Emmelene Perencevich.
• [Bailey Chaney] Lillian Grace Perrin.
• [Solomon] Aaron Daniel Peters.
• [Bailey Chaney] Alexander Snitsarev Petroff.
• [Solomon] Cole Harrison Philpott.
• [Bailey Chaney] Wiralba Pichardo Vasquez.
• [Solomon] Raffay Aadil Piracha.
• [Bailey Chaney] Olivia Paige Pluska.
• [Solomon] Samikshya Pokharel.
• [Bailey Chaney] Jacob Mark Polovina, in absentia.
• [Solomon] Ganga Prakash, in absentia. 
  Oh, Ganga Prakash.
• [Bailey Chaney] Mitchell Joseph Priest.
• [Solomon] Gabriela Iveth Pruneda Turcios.
• [Bailey Chaney] Rumesa Qalbani.
• [Solomon] David Anthony Quintana.
• [Bailey Chaney] Daniel John Quirk.
• [Solomon] Allison Cheri Nabil Rabbani.
• [Bailey Chaney] Dillon Rayce Rawlings.
• [Solomon] Evelyn Greer Redding.
• [Bailey Chaney] Gwyneth Jane Redding.
• [Solomon] Ezekiel Ketchum Reilly.
• [Bailey Chaney] Camryn Reschke.
• [Solomon] William Edward Migat Reyes.
• [Bailey Chaney] Nicholas Brooks Rhinehart.
• [Solomon] Tori Love Richardson.
• [Bailey Chaney] Amy Kirsten Rinehard.
• [Solomon] Elizabeth Renee Roberts.
• [Bailey Chaney] John Eric Robinson.
• [Solomon] Anastasia Rompi.
• [Bailey Chaney] Augustine Julian Ros.
• [Solomon] Ella Downing Rosenthal.
• [Bailey Chaney] Maria Lanier Rossi.
• [Solomon] Myah Angelena Rozinek.
• [Bailey Chaney] Samuel Ethan Rudenberg.
• [Solomon] Jack Anstead Kelly Ruhanen.
• [Bailey Chaney] Meghan Joyce Rydel.
• [Solomon] Carolina Isabel Salas.
• [Bailey Chaney] Patrick Anderson Sales Garcia.
• [Solomon] Alisa Sannikova.
• [Bailey Chaney] Vivian Leigh Santillo, in absentia.
• [Solomon] Agnes Osainatu Saracouli.
• [Bailey Chaney] Axel Saries.
• [Solomon] Ishita Sarraf.
• [Bailey Chaney] Ohana Sarvotham.
• [Solomon] Anthony Alfred Schwindt.
• [Bailey Chaney] Maya Elizabeth Sciarretta.
• [Solomon] Margaret Ellen Seehorn.
• [Bailey Chaney] Zachary Joshua Yanli Serby, in absentia.
• [Solomon] Eshaan Sethi.
• [Bailey Chaney] Dev Sethia.
• [Solomon] Luka Francis Shaker-Check.
• [Bailey Chaney] Wallis Olivia Isabella Shepard.
• [Solomon] Kailee Shermak.
• [Bailey Chaney] Alex Robert Sidler.
• [Solomon] Colin Michael Singer.
• [Bailey Chaney] Samridh Dev Singh.
• [Solomon] Samuel Peter Sirna.
• [Bailey Chaney] Connor John Smith.
• [Solomon] Isabel Astrid Smith.
• [Bailey Chaney] Ilya Sniff.
• [Solomon] Hayden Ross Somach.
• [Bailey Chaney] Grace Insun Song.
• [Solomon] Annabel Lee Spayde.
• [Bailey Chaney] Zachary Benedict Spindler-Krage.
• [Solomon] Hemlock Stanier.
• [Bailey Chaney] Luke Geza Stefan.
• [Solomon] Lívia Stein Freitas.
• [Bailey Chaney] Alex Dantigawn Stein.
• [Solomon] Isabella Jean Eiynck Steward.
• [Bailey Chaney] Jackson Tibe Stoll.
• [Solomon] Gia Sundaram.
• [Bailey Chaney] Graham Laurence Sundstrom.
• [Solomon] Brian Sung.
• [Bailey Chaney] Soma Suzuki.
• [Solomon] Elliot Thomas Swaim.
• [Bailey Chaney] Aliya Jane Swearngin.
• [Solomon] Hannah Jaclyn Sweet.
• [Bailey Chaney] Sean James Tashjian.
• [Solomon] Ava Callahan Taylor.
• [Bailey Chaney] Tyrell Taylor.
• [Solomon] Budhil Bhuvanesh Joshua Thijm.
• [Bailey Chaney] Tori Thomas.
• [Solomon] Miles Thompson.
• [Bailey Chaney] LeClaire Elise Torgelson.
• [Solomon] Michelle Tran, in absentia.
• [Bailey Chaney] Kana Tsuruta.
• [Solomon] Ayushma Tuladhar.
• [Bailey Chaney] Rene Ramon Urias Jr.
• [Solomon] Peter Logan Versh.
• [Bailey Chaney] Alexa Lila Viersma.
• [Solomon] Bella Lincoln Villarreal.
• [Bailey Chaney] Cheyanne Princess Vinson.
• [Solomon] Nina Yen Vo.
• [Bailey Chaney] Anh Ngoc Vu.
• [Solomon] Zachary Michael Walsh.
• [Bailey Chaney] Jingyi Wang.
• [Solomon] Qiongyue Wang.
• [Bailey Chaney] William Wang, in absentia.
• [Solomon] Zitan Wang.
• [Bailey Chaney] Graham Francis Ward.
• [Solomon] Nicole Elizabeth Ware.
• [Bailey Chaney] Wayne Kelton Watts.
• [Solomon] Leah Anne Webb.
• [Bailey Chaney] Sophie MacLaren Weber.
• [Solomon] Bowen Wei.
• [Bailey Chaney] Alexander Neville Welch.
• [Solomon] Hugh Albert Werner.
• [Bailey Chaney] Rachel Sydney Werner.
• [Solomon] Ella Irene Widmann.
• [Bailey Chaney] Lena Charlotte Wiebe.
• [Solomon] Allison Miranda Wightman.
• [Bailey Chaney] Carter Austin Williams.
• [Solomon] Garrett Stone Wilson.
• [Bailey Chaney] Madeleine Armstrong Wilson.
• [Solomon] Owen Chandler Wilson.
• [Bailey Chaney] Sarah Helen Wilts.
• [Solomon] Kian Jhainae Witherspoon.
• [Bailey Chaney] Oliver Wolfe.
• [Solomon] Jules Cicely Wood.
• [Bailey Chaney] Valeriya Elizabeth Bogaznanye Woodard.
• [Solomon] Ely Woodward.
• [Bailey Chaney] André Orville Wright II.
• [Solomon] Qianqian Wu.
• [Bailey Chaney] Han Xie.
• [Solomon] Ziya Xu, in absentia.
• [Bailey Chaney] Alexandra Yan, in absentia.
• [Solomon] Xingjian Yang.
• [Bailey Chaney] Yvonne Seunghee Yoon.
• [Solomon] Emlyn R. Yoon-Buck.
• [Bailey Chaney] Cameron Connolly Youngblood.
• [Solomon] Howard Scott Lee Youngdahl.
• [Bailey Chaney] Madeleine Yu.
• [Solomon] Ainsley Joel Yuknis.
• [Bailey Chaney] Zoe Turner Zallek.
• [Solomon] Sami Zaman.
• [Bailey Chaney] Zev Zentner.
• [Solomon] Lanxin Zhang.
• [Bailey Chaney] Yiyong Alan Zhang.
• [Solomon] Chong Zhao.
• [Bailey Chaney] Juncheng Zhao, in absentia.
• [Solomon] Zhou Jingzhi.

Armstrong

Not yet, not yet.

President Harris, these are the graduates of the class of 2025.

Bailey Chaney

President Harris, the college at this time will recognize the members.

President Harris, the college at this time will recognize the members of the class of 2025 who have been accepted into or completed the Ninth Semester Program leading to Iowa Teaching Certification.

Would these students please stand as I call their names and remain standing until I have completed the list? Alyvia Bunkowski, Haily Madison Collins, Kenjiro Kajita.

Ella Labarre, Brian Allan Prussman, Graham Laurence Sundstrom, Owen Chandler Wilson.

Congratulations and please be seated.

Armstrong

Will the graduates to the degree of Bachelor of Arts please rise.

Harris

Dear graduates, after I present my charge to you and before our final benediction, we will gladly honor the request to throw your graduation caps in the air to begin to express the exuberance of our joy for and with you.

And families, I will let you know ahead of time so you can get the camera ready.

For now, you may move your tassels from the right to the left in the ceremonial acknowledgement of your worthy accomplishments as graduates of this college.

It is thus my honor to present my charge to you, to the graduating class of 2025.

To do so, I bring forward words that I have long studied as a professor of medieval art, words of Julian of Norwich, a 14th century mystic who had experienced plague, war and political upheaval in her youth.

In a vision, a divine presence comes to her.

In answer to her questions about her future in a fraught and wondrous world, the divine presence, she tells us, did not say, "You shall not be bothered." It did not say, "You shall not be troubled." It did not say, "You shall not be distressed", but it did say, "You shall not be overcome." Class of 2025, you have persevered and championed and rejoiced with a courage and a brilliance and a tenacity that inspire and that will forever replenish your resolve for whatever may come.

Prize what replenishes you.

Hold fast to what you hold dear.

Safeguard your joy and let this place and all the people who walk and have walked these grounds and all the hope and hardship and the joy and laughter that have rung out under that prairie sky be a wellspring to you, always replenishing and fulfilling you.

May 51��ɫ forever be in your hearts, as you will forever be in ours.

Okay, families, we can get the cameras out.

Now remember, we will close out our commencement ceremony with a benediction from Rabbi Sarah.

But first, dear 51��ɫ graduates of the class of 2025, you have achieved great things in your time here.

You will accomplish many more, and it truly gives me hope for the world to be able to say to you, go forth 51��ɫians, let those caps fly.

Congratulations, class of '25.

All right, I now invite everyone to stand as you are able to receive the benediction.

Brammer-Shlay

As we close our ceremony, we congratulate these alums and their families on this impressive accomplishment.

As you go forth as alumni, may you remember the following, when you can be honest, be honest, when you can be wise, be wise, when you can be grateful, be grateful, and when you can learn, go learn.

May whatever comes next for each of you be filled with learning.

As we know, 51��ɫians love learning so deeply, and you have learned more than any of us could quantify.

Take all of that learning into your next chapter.

May your next chapter be filled with community and may you show deep commitment in the various aspects of your lives, no matter what comes next for you.

As you leave 51��ɫ, may you remember that this is a community for you to return to.

51��ɫ is a part of your story and you are a part of 51��ɫ's story.

May all who are traveling today and in the days to come have a safe journey.

May each of you have a lifetime of learning, a lifetime of connected community, and a lifetime of joy.

Amen.