Yale News

When the class of 2025 gathers on Old Campus for this year’s Class Day ceremony, five seniors will take the stage to reflect, entertain and inspire. 

Selected by the student-run Class Day Committee, the performers include one speaker, a comedy duo and a pair of student musicians — each bringing a unique voice to the closing moments of their Yale experience.

The committee, co-led by Katia George ’25 and Leyli Granmayeh ’25, reviewed more than 40 live auditions in February. This year’s lineup, they said, was chosen with a specific vision in mind.

“We really wanted to reflect the range of the Class of 2025’s experiences,” Granmayeh told the News. “So we aimed for a balance — something heartfelt, something funny and something musical. That variety, we felt, best captured the spirit of our class.”

Unlike past years, when some auditions were based on pre-submitted scripts or videos, the 2025 committee opted for a fully open, in-person format.

Committee members scored each performance and met to deliberate, with Granmayeh and George facilitating the discussion.

“We wanted everyone to have the chance to audition live,” Granmayeh said. “So much of performance is about delivery and presence.”

The News spoke with the five individuals selected to perform at Class Day this year.

Molly Smith ’25

When American studies major Molly Smith ’25 received the email informing her she’d been selected as this year’s Class Day speaker, she was sitting in the middle of an acting class. She held back her reaction until she could step out and call her mom.

“She was screaming on the other end of the phone,” Smith said. “It felt like such a full-circle moment.”

Smith said her speech draws on her senior thesis, which explores Yale’s coeducation era through the life of Elga Wasserman, the administrator who helped bring the first undergraduate women to Yale. A cancer survivor, Smith also weaves her personal experience into the address.

“It’s about looking at what it means to stand up for something,” she said. “How the past can inform the present.”

Though she doesn’t speak much about her extracurriculars in the speech itself, Smith spent four years in Yale Dancers and is a filmmaker and screenwriter. Her time at Yale, she said, has centered around storytelling — historical, personal and creative.

“I want my classmates to know they’re not alone in what they face,” Smith said. “There’s comfort in remembering that history is full of struggle and of people who made it through.”

After graduation, Smith will spend a year screenwriting on a Yale-affiliated fellowship.

Tara Bhat ’25 and Emma Madsen ’25

For comedy duo Tara Bhat ’25 and Emma Madsen ’25, Class Day offers one final act in a long-running friendship.

The two met in their first year in a campus comedy space and have collaborated on stand-up and sketches ever since.

“People seemed to really respond to us together,” said Madsen, a molecular, cellular and developmental biology major. “So we kept doing it.”

Their Class Day performance will blend personal storytelling with punchlines, focusing on friendship after Yale.

“We want everyone in the audience to hear something that resonates,” said Bhat, a political science major who also does organizing work in New Haven and on campus. “And hopefully, at least one joke that lands.”

The duo’s performance adds a lighter tone to the ceremony, one that the Class Day Committee specifically sought out.

“We felt it was important not to take the whole day too seriously,” Granmayeh said. “Tara and Emma’s sketch brought something really fun and real.”

Victoria Pekel ’25 and Vyann Eteme ’25

Last year marked the first time Class Day featured a live musical performance. This year, that new tradition continues with Victoria Pekel ’25 and Vyann Eteme ’25 performing an original song titled “We Can Find Love.”

“We originally auditioned with a Whitney Houston cover,” said Pekel, a double major in political science and theater studies. “But the committee asked for something original, so we sat down and wrote.”

The song, described by both performers as an “ode to the class,” blends themes of perseverance, political awareness and hope. It draws from their shared time in Shades of Yale, an a cappella group that performs music of the Black diaspora.

“There’s so much going on in the world right now,” said Eteme, who majors in history of science and music. “We wanted our piece to reflect both that reality and the resilience we’ve built here.”

Their work bridges music and activism — both have organized concerts and performances focused on artists of color.

“Music can be healing,” Eteme said. “This performance is about community, compassion and the importance of not giving in to despair.”

Class Day will take place on May 18 on Old Campus.

Correction, May 18: A previous version of this article incorrectly said Class Day would take place on May 19.