Good morning. As we begin today, I invite us to pause, to center ourselves, and to take a deep breath. As we breathe in, we are mindful of and grateful for the elements that sustain our lives here: the air we breathe, the sun that warms us, the rain that wettens us, and the earth that supports us. We are also mindful of and grateful for the Wabanaki, our Indigenous neighbors who have honored and stewarded the land around us for centuries.
We honor the remarkable journey that has brought these graduates to this day—each late night of study, each breakthrough and setback, each friendship formed, each act of service, and each step taken toward becoming who they are called to be.
Class of 2025, today is your day, and we give thanks not only for all that you have achieved but also for all those who helped carry you here—your friends, families, mentors, professors, coaches, and the countless others who have believed in you, even in the moments when you struggled to believe in yourselves.
Today is a celebration of all that you have achieved thus far—but let it also be a summons for the life that awaits you. Today’s commencement ceremony marks a new beginning, a call forward.
As you journey forth from this place, may you carry with you not just the knowledge in your minds, but also the fire in your hearts. May you dare to be morally ambitious in this world that too often rewards ambition without conscience, where personal gain is pitted against public welfare. May you have the courage to pursue what is just over what is easy, to hold fast to your values in the face of pressure, and to lead not only with excellence, but with empathy and ethical purpose.
And may you carry with you the kind of moral imagination that philosopher Bertrand Russell once described as “the capacity to read a column of numbers and weep.” May you never lose the ability to see behind every statistic a story, behind every problem a person, and behind every challenge an opportunity for compassion.
May you use your talents to build bridges where there are divides, to challenge injustice, and to lift others as you climb. Let your lives reflect the values that have defined Bowdoin graduates for centuries: courage, humility, curiosity, and commitment to the common good.
And may you always remember: the world needs you—not only for what you know, but also for who you are.
I ask all this in a spirit of love and hope. May it be so!
