COMMENCEMENT 2024
IN PHOTOS: 2020–2024

SALOVEY: Love and Compassion

Graduates of the Class of 2024, family members, and friends: It gives me great pleasure to greet you today and to offer a few words […]

DUNSON: Lessons learned

I came to Yale with an Obama-era faith in diversity and the power of Black exceptionalism. At 17 and at the top of my high school class, I believed I was the next iteration of the talented Black student entering an elite space and using his position to make change. I was certain that Yale had offered me a place at its university because it saw that promise in me. My family believed it too. 

HU: On the Accidentality of Relationships

At 2:30 a.m., on the couches of a Davenport suite, my friends and I were reflecting on how we got to know one another, and how we got to know our other close friends. My friend Ian said something that is now stuck in my brain, which I remember as “you NEVER develop deep connections INTENTIONALLY.” 

SAPRE: The Perfect Goodbye

During my first-ever week as a Yale student, sitting alone in a large, empty ‘dingle’ — a room with two beds but one inhabitant — I closed the tab containing a YouTube video titled “President Salovey’s Address to Yale College Class of 2024,” and submitted my first-ever piece for the News. It was titled “In Pursuit of the Perfect Goodbye.” Four years later, I am still in pursuit. And further away than I’ve ever been.

AMEND: Practice intimacy

Recently, I reflected on what I could have done differently at Yale, and what I can do differently as an alumnus to improve my life. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, scaling the ranks of academia or another field was not one of them. Nor was writing a good book. I’ve chosen to focus, instead, on intimacy.

NAM: Yale Will Not Save Her

On April 2, University President Peter Salovey emailed the Yale community under the subject line “Your Yale, Your Voice,” asking us to complete the 2024 Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Misconduct and Resource Awareness. The third in a series of quadrennial surveys administered by the Association of American Universities, it aims to collect data on patterns of sexual misconduct on campus and shed light on possible strategies officials can take in response.

Unprecedentedly yours,

Post-March 2020 was full of “unprecedented” moments. It was the year when shirts and pajama shorts became a fit, thanks to online meetings. Second, there […]

Back in undergrad…

As I write this piece — my last one ever for the Yale Daily News — I am lounging outside at an Airbnb in Cape […]

To the Class of 2028

To the Class of 2028, Hey! It’s me, your Great Aunt Ella. God, it’s good to connect! You’ve been SO BUSY with school and clubs […]

Something to Say

This piece was written for the Class Day Anthology, which was distributed to graduates at Class Day on May 19th, 2024. During my first year […]