Snapshots from Commencement ceremonies across campus
FAS graduates collected their diplomas at more than a dozen smaller gatherings
/ Read time: 3 minutes
Once the proceedings wrapped at Tercentenary Theatre Thursday, graduates headed off to a series of smaller diploma-collecting ceremonies. Extension School grads converged upon the Museum of Natural History for their special event, while Harvard College seniors dispersed to the 12 undergraduate Houses.
These festivities, more intimate than the Morning Exercises, allowed graduates to connect with faculty, friends, and family. Across campus, the air was light — and thick with praise for all present. Groups of smiling faces were, by far, the afternoon’s most common photographic subject.
At Winthrop House, Tioluwalase Adelakun ’26 was seen posing for snapshots with multiple configurations of the 20-plus relatives who came from across the United States to mark his achievement.
“Everyone was like, ‘We have to come! It’s Harvard! It’s your graduation!’” said Adelakun, who grew up in Illinois after his family immigrated from Nigeria in 2013.
“As one of my friends has been saying, ‘I’m my ancestors’ dream,’” Adelakun quickly added. “All my family, having everybody here, it’s a testament to how much has gone into this degree. It’s not just my work; it’s probably hundreds of years of people coming together to try to make sure I have the best possible opportunity.”
Also taking place were ceremonies for students completing advanced degrees at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering or Applied Sciences and the Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. At the David Rubenstein Treehouse, Stephanie Gil, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, celebrated with a group of newly minted Ph.D.s.
“You just see this metamorphosis in front of your eyes,” Gil marveled. “The student that comes in on the first day is completely different from the student that leaves on the last day. They mature so much. They learn how to think about problems very deeply. On the last day, they really do feel more like a colleague than a student.”
Also taking place were ceremonies for students completing advanced degrees at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering or Applied Sciences and the Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. At the David Rubenstein Treehouse, Stephanie Gil, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, celebrated with a group of newly minted Ph.D.s.
“You just see this metamorphosis in front of your eyes,” Gil marveled. “The student that comes in on the first day is completely different from the student that leaves on the last day. They mature so much. They learn how to think about problems very deeply. On the last day, they really do feel more like a colleague than a student.”
Related
You Might Also Like
How a giant predator of prehistoric seas was discovered — twice
After 80 million years, a giant fossil jaw has quite a story to tell. Back in the age of the dinosaurs, Tylosaurus proriger was a fearsome predator — a bus-sized aquatic reptile with a crushing snout, daggerlike teeth, and knack for swallowing prey whole. How its bones wound up at Harvard is a tangled yarn involving a Wild West stagecoach station, the early western railroads, the infamous “Bone Wars” between rival fossil hunters, and a founding scholar of natural history.
Women more likely to marry, land jobs after taking GLP-1s
New research by economist Rebecca Diamond found an increase in marriage among single women and an increase in employment rates among unemployed women after they started taking GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. Diamond says the pattern suggests that at least part of the female obesity penalty — the social and financial costs women bear due to their body size — is linked to first impressions.
At age 101, alum gifts ‘big, geometric, colorful’ artwork to the FAS
When David Bakalar first set foot at Harvard, he was a 17-year-old child of immigrants commuting by bus from Lynn, his $500 “nonresident scholarship” covering tuition and a study space at Leverett House but not room and board.