Garrett Curtis, Photography Editor

On Sunday, five seniors creatively reflected on their undergraduate experiences at Yale’s annual Class Day ceremony. Through comedy, music and oration, the performers called attention to student activism’s lasting impression on the class of 2025.

This year’s “class reflection,” delivered by Molly Smith ’25, connected current “unprecedented times” to Yale’s past instances of student activism.

“In our time at Yale, more than 1,000 students participated in the encampments protesting Yale investment in weapons used in the Israel-Hamas war,” Smith said, noting that the April 2024 pro-Palestinian encampment at Yale occured on Beinecke Plaza, the same location as the 1980s Yale student protests against South African apartheid. 

“Throughout history, Yale students have been the force moving Yale from the past to a more equitable present,” Smith continued.

Smith’s remarks followed an original song performed by Victoria Pekel ’25 and Vyann Eteme ’25 and a comedy set by Tara Bhat ’25 and Emma Madsen ’25. Pekel and Eteme’s song, “We Can Find Love,” focused on unity. At the end of the song, Eteme thanked the crowd, then said “Free Palestine” into the microphone. Bhat and Maden’s set referenced the arrests of pro-Palestinian protestors last spring.

These invocations of Yale’s handling of pro-Palestinian protests come just days after a student at New York University was denied his diploma after criticizing Israel in his commencement speech. 

“We Can Find Love,” an original song by Pekel and Eteme, is a downtempo ballad addressing bystander’s apathy and condemnation of expression in times of suffering. 

“When you’re bleeding out and aching and the world is never changing, but no one seems to listen to your cries,” Eteme sang in the song’s second verse. “The hardening of hearts will never save, only keep us chained.”

Both Eteme and Pekel were members of Shades of Yale, an a cappella group that performs music of the Black diaspora. They hoped to draw on their experience with the group with this performance.

Throughout the song, Eteme played piano while both vocalists sang individual verses. During the chorus, the two came together in harmony and urgent pleas.

“There will come a time when we all will have to answer,” both Pekel and Eteme sang. “For all the times we stood by, but we can find love ‘cause it’s all that we have.”

Bhat and Madsen employed a mix of wit and topical satire to poke fun at their last four years as they offered an eight-pronged list of advice to their peers. They joked about the popular Fizz app, working for a consulting group post-graduation, ChatGPT written theses and socioeconomic disparities on campus. Intermittently, though, they also referenced landmark Yale policies regarding institutional voice. 

“During our time here, we have learned that some things you’ve been taught are not true,” Madsen said. “Like, that one day we’ll have free laundry or that we have a two week shopping period, or that we have ‘free speech’ on campus.”

This particular statement was met with roarous applause, sounds of shock and laughter from the audience. 

The set concluded with a reference to the arrests of pro-Palestinian protestors last spring and remarks that encouraged graduates to pursue their beliefs unabashedly and use their skills to have a positive impact on their communities.

“Yale class of 2025, you are a class of leaders, changemakers, talented creatives, organizers, activists, people brave enough to get arrest,” Bhat said before trailing off and chuckling. “So when someone, a person, an institution or a president gets in the way of that, stand up for yourself.”

Smith’s speech recalled the introduction of women, Black students and Jewish students to Yale’s undergraduate population, as well as the University’s long history of student activism, which includes historic protests against the Vietnam War and rallies in support of the nine Black Panther Party members who went on trial in New Haven on May Day.

Smith also explained that the student activism she witnessed over the last four years and beyond intersected with her own experience overcoming cancer while at Yale. She said that the profundity of student voices empowered her during her recovery and should continue to be encouraged and facilitated regardless of their perceived radicality. 

“We gathered when Russia invaded Ukraine, we watched the Supreme Court overturn affirmative action, 44 of our classmates were arrested for protesting on their own campus,” Smith said. “And now academic freedom is on the line. In a world with so much conflict, the pressure to do something impactful will never go away, but we can’t let it paralyze us”

Smith’s speech ended with a message on how current tensions are not in isolation from Yale’s past history, adding that history can serve as a “North Star” for the future.  

The Class Day performers were selected from a competitive pool of 40 other acts by the student-run Class Day Committee, co-led by Katia George ’25 and Leyli Granmayeh ’25.