Bowdoin College Celebrates 219th Commencement

第219届毕业典礼于周六上午在沃克艺术大楼的台阶上举行, 2024年5月25日.

44个国家, as well as the District of Columbia and Northern Mariana Islands, 是代表, including Massachusetts with seventy-nine students, New York with forty-five, California with thirty-five, and Connecticut with twenty-four. Forty graduating seniors hail from outside the US; thirty-three countries and territories have citizens graduating from Bowdoin. 

大学元帅 琼Yarbrough, who is Bowdoin's Gary M. Pendy老. 社会科学教授正式宣布毕业典礼开幕. 奥利弗·古德里奇, director of the Rachel Lord Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, then offered the invocation, 他在信中赞扬了2024届毕业生在2020年抵达买球平台时应对疫情挑战的方式.

“You may not have chosen these circumstances,他说, “but you have chosen to respond to them with courage and compassion. 你们今天来到这里参加毕业典礼，证明了你们心中形成的坚韧不拔的精神，这种精神将带着你们从这里继续前进.” Read the full text of Goodrich’s invocation.

After the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner,校董会主席斯科特·珀珀(Scott Perper)走上讲台，向即将毕业的毕业生致敬. 珀珀还花了一点时间来表彰买球平台2014届毕业生、记者埃文·格什科维奇, 自一年多前因未经证实的间谍指控被捕以来，他一直被关押在俄罗斯. 聚集的人群对被拘留者报以热烈的掌声 Wall Street Journal 记者.

Greetings for the State were delivered by Anna Cox ’24, an economics major who grew up in rural Maine. She talked about the natural beauty of Maine, with its thousands of miles of coastline, but what she really finds so special about the state, 她解释说, 是人吗?. Mainers, said Cox, are “resilient… selfless… and determined.” Read the full text of Cox’s speech.

In her first Commencement welcome address as Bowdoin president, Safa Zaki told the students that, while every graduation is special, this one is particularly so.

“You are the Bowdoin Class of 2024,”她说。, “but most of you are also from the high school Class of 2020. 在大流行的最初几个月，你们从高中毕业，没有机会与高中同学在公共场合聚会. Yours is a class that did not have a typical senior year of high school, nor did you have a typical first year of college. 这就是为什么能和你一起庆祝这一刻感觉特别甜蜜.”

扎基分享了对即将毕业的大四学生所取得成就的一些感想, which she described as class of full of amazing individuals. “The Class of 2024 includes three Watson Fellows, more than twenty Fulbrights, and many other national award winners,扎基说。. “你的学术努力产生了原创研究，其中一些甚至已经发表. 你们富有创意的表演给观众带来了敬畏、挑战和深刻的印象. 你的运动成就得到了全国大学生体育协会和全国大学生体育协会的认可.“学生们在广泛问题上的激进主义使得一些对话变得困难, 她强调, “as we imagine and strive for a better world.”

然而, 加扎基, it is not these individual accomplishments she wishes to highlight, 但是“安静”, 持续的, 你们所做的集体工作使你们成为一个班级，在困难时期相互支持和庆祝.” The way members of the Class of 2024 entered Bowdoin, 她说, has helped them build particularly strong bonds, perhaps stronger than they realize. “You had to make your own traditions and practices, you had to form your own communities, 你在这里的第一年没有学长给你指路.”

Zaki also reflected on her own role, 注意到大学校长的职位经常被媒体描述为世界上最艰难的工作. “I don’t recognize my experience in those articles,” she added. “我不得不说，我发现这是一份非常有意义和快乐的工作. 当然，不是每一天的每一分钟，而是大多数的分钟，大多数的日子. And that is because of all of you.” Read the full text of Safa Zaki’s remarks.

Following her address, Zaki welcomed onto the stage the family of Charlotte Billingsley ’24, 他于2022年12月在多米尼加共和国的一场悲惨事故中丧生. “Charlotte was an excellent student,”她说。. 她主修物理学，计划攻读生物医学工程博士学位. 她还辅修了买球平台，并在安曼度过了2022年秋季学期, 约旦, 学习买球平台和约旦文化，教年轻的叙利亚难民英语.” 

Commencement Speakers
这是自1806年买球平台第一届毕业典礼以来的传统, Commencement addresses were delivered by graduating seniors. 今年的演讲者是通过竞争选出的，他们是24届的迪伦·里士满和24届的科琳·杜赛特.

Class of 1868 Prize Winner Dylan Richmond ‘24
里士满的地址, 叫做“白松”,” was a poem in which he describes his four years at Bowdoin, the good times and the not so good. 以下是节选:

The day I arrived here, it was raining.
那些浸透了水的树歪歪扭扭地向远处倾斜

天空
and I couldn’t quite look them in the eyes.

The day after I arrived here, my best friend called me.
他说做你自己.

我到这里的第二天，一个人在加油站骂我是在侮辱我.

我肿胀着走过汉纳福德的灯火通明的停车场，最后在一个戴着公鸡的咖啡馆前哭了起来.

第二天，我觉得自己像一张20英尺宽的网，捕捉着空中的每一个锋利的边缘.

Read the full text of 里士满的地址. 

Goodwin Commencement Prize Winner Colleen Doucette ‘24
杜塞特演讲的题目是“我们买球平台的骨架建筑”，其灵感来自作家兼活动家奥德丽·洛德的一句话. “Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.”

When she read these words, 多赛特说, something “clicked” as she looked back on her time at Bowdoin, 在2019冠状病毒病大流行令人不安和前所未有的动荡中开始:“2024届毕业生,”她说。, “had been placed into a fearful unknown. And in response, we were 诗人. We laid the foundation for a space we had never been in, for experiences we had 还没有开始. We created the skeleton architecture of our Bowdoin.”

Doucette views her first semester at Bowdoin, with hardly any upperclass students on campus, 作为礼物. “We were gifted a fresh start, a blank page,”她说。. “我们别无选择，只能用创造力和灵活性来解决问题，”她补充说. This involved creating a “new, more caring community.此外，她补充说，“我们按照学校的录取通知书做出了改变。. 我从一个以经济稳定为唯一目标的年轻学生，变成了一个痴迷于诗歌的英语专业学生, 语言, 和文字.” Read the full text of Doucette’s speech.

Honorary Degree Recipients
买球平台授予 three honorary degrees 颁奖典礼上: 

• Three-time Grammy award-winning bass baritone opera singer Ryan Speedo Green
• Award-winning journalist and broadcaster 玛丽亚Hinojosa
• Philanthropist and trustee emeritus 大卫J. 面粉糊

Senior Class President Melissa Su ’24 also spoke. 在她的评论中, 苏回忆了她和同学们在疫情期间的经历, 他们试图在最奇怪的环境中获得大学教育. 她说:“可以肯定地说，我们在买球平台经历了一次不同寻常的经历。. “但, despite what some would call “odd socialization,“对我来说，最突出的是我们班成功地影响和塑造了许多社区.” Read the full text of Su’s address. 

然后，毕业班的成员被授予学士学位. This was followed by a performance of “Raise Songs to Bowdoin,” led by vocalists from the Class of 2024.

毕业典礼由温克利拉丁语和希腊语教授和学院院长正式结束 Barbara Weiden Boyd.

典礼在钱德勒乐队演奏的“毕业进行曲”和“告别进行曲”中结束.”

Read about Bowdoin’s Baccalaureate ceremony held Friday, May 24, 2024, in the Watson Arena.