Congratulations, Class of 2016!

Among Harvard’s many traditions and oddities is the fact that the Harvard College experience ends with a ceremony called “commencement." On the day when parents, alumni, faculty, administrators, and soon-to-be graduates gather together to celebrate the completion of students’ college careers, administrators announce their educational experience has just begun. Indeed, the hope is that Harvard is not the end of one’s education, but a beginning of a lifelong journey that four years here have helped to inform.

It is in this spirit that we wish the Class of 2016, both from the College and the University’s graduate schools, all the best as they begin their life beyond Cambridge. Some will be doctors and lawyers or bankers and consultants; others will find their calling in teaching and public service or in family and volunteerism. Regardless of their path, we hope they neither forget Harvard nor their years spent on this campus. In a very real sense, today is their true commencement, when they enter the world armed with a degree and a sense of hopefulness for the future. That community is what they are commenced into today. It may seem strange to say it on this day of all days, but never is it more true: welcome to Harvard.Congratulations, Class of 2016!