The Finish Line: Bowdoin Celebrates 220th Commencement

Amid rainy conditions, the 220th Commencement was held on the steps of the Walker Art Building on the morning of Saturday, May 24, 2025. 

Of the 520 graduates, forty-six are from Maine. Forty-one states, as well as the District of Columbia and Northern Mariana Islands, were represented, including Massachusetts with seventy-nine students, California with fifty-one, New York with forty-nine, and Connecticut with twenty-seven.

Thirty-two graduating seniors hail from outside the US; fifty-one countries and territories have citizens graduating from Bowdoin.

College Marshal Jean Yarbrough, who is Bowdoin's Gary M. Pendy Sr. Professor of Social Sciences, officially opened the Commencement Exercises ceremony. 

Oliver Goodrich, director of the Rachel Lord Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, then offered the invocation, in which he invited the Class of 2025 to pause, center, themselves, and 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,” said Goodrich. "We are also mindful of and grateful for the Wabanaki, our Indigenous neighbors who have honored and stewarded the land around us for centuries," he continued.

As well as being an occasion to honor the journey that has brought the students to this day, Goodrich said it was also a day to thank “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 yourself.” Read Goodrich’s remarks.

After the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Chair of the Board of Trustees Scott Perper ’78 took to the lectern to salute the graduating seniors.

"I vividly remember sitting where you are now forty-seven years ago, listening to someone who is now me. I suspect the last four years feel like they have flown by. I feel like the last forty-seven years have been equally quick," he said. "But isn’t that an important lesson about life?—Time flies but your memories endure. The Greek philosopher Theophrastus said, 'Time is the most valuable thing a person can spend.' So, as you leave Bowdoin, I hope you treasure time." Read Perper's remarks in full. 

After his remarks, Perper introduced computer science major Khalil Kilani ’25 to deliver Greetings for the State.

Kilani, who came to the US from the Middle East as a child refugee of Iraqi origin, described the joys of growing up in Maine, with its proud history and natural beauty. Kilani encouraged his classmates to reflect on the positive experiences they have enjoyed in the state over the last four years and to think of themselves as Mainers. “This state is your lighthouse, and may it guide your path in everything you do.” Read Kilani’s remarks.

In her Commencement welcome address, President Safa Zaki acknowledged that members of the Class of 2025 are graduating into a world of profound challenges not anticipated when they arrived at Bowdoin four years ago. “The world you are entering might seem uninviting. Perhaps this even feels like an incongruous moment to celebrate. But today IS a day to celebrate,” she said.

Zaki saluted the remarkable array of accomplishments achieved by the students in front of her: “Sitting among your class are recipients of national fellowships; published authors; accomplished artists and athletes; and so many community leaders and activists. Over the past four years, some of you have become fluent in a new language; some have contributed to scientific discoveries; some of you have composed original pieces of music or created beautiful works of art; some have read books that fundamentally changed your worldview; some of you produced original works of scholarship; some of you have competed in national championships; some have spent hours volunteering on campus or in the community; all of you have built lifelong capacities and relationships.”

She also recognized the inevitable struggles and failures they would have had to navigate along the way. “Maybe you struggled through, or even failed, a class; maybe you have a regret about something you did in a friendship; maybe you made a wrong decision now and again; maybe you are questioning whether you had the college experience you had hoped for. I want you to know that these struggles, regrets, wrong decisions, and lingering questions do not predict or determine your future—they are opportunities to reflect on and recognize what can be overcome.”

Zaki looked back two hundred years to the Class of 1825, which featured, most famously, literary giants Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. That class also included “congressmen, prominent lawyers, and even a Navy commodore. And then there were the lesser-known students whose impact was felt, even if not often remembered,” she added.

“But I have to say that the astonishing distribution of talent in this class, the class of 2025, is equally unlikely,” Zaki continued. “So too is the astonishing depth of the relationships you have with each other and the kindness you show to each other—those qualities make it possible for all of you to take risks, to try new and hard things, to excel so spectacularly.”

“Please come back and visit,” she told class members. “This is always your home.” Read President Zaki's remarks in full.

Commencement Speakers
As has been the tradition since Bowdoin’s first graduation ceremony in 1806, Commencement addresses were delivered by graduating seniors. This year’s speakers, chosen through competition, were Carina Lim-Huang ’25 and Weatherspoon ’25.

Class of 1868 Prize Winner Carina Lim-Huang ’25
Lim-Huang’s address, titled “Persistent Love,” reflected on the smaller, mundane moments during her time at Bowdoin, moments that add up to something much bigger. “When I arrived at Bowdoin, I imagined that college would hinge on a few, towering moments,” she said. She imagined battling through extreme weather, overcoming academic hurdles, and other major achievements, as the experience of college makes her who she is “meant to be.”

But this is not quite how it worked out, said Lim-Huang. “As graduation approaches, I find myself clinging on—not to the grand, cinematic peaks—but to the small things. The things that pass unnoticed until you realize they’re the very structure of your life.” Among the things she will miss are “choosing to ‘study’ in Smith, an endeavor doomed from the start because I’m always hoping to be distracted. I’ll miss standing dinners that became sacred, kitchen conversations that became confessions, Thursday nights that bleed into Friday mornings.”

These thoughts, she said, curiously remind her of a quote she heard on a TikTok: “Love… is more about consistency than intensity.” So, she reasoned, if “love lives in the ordinary and understated, I envision that our commitment to the common good can too.” Making a difference, said Lim-Huang, is more about patience, persistence, and showing up than it is about the grand gesture. Read Lim-Huang’s address in full.

Goodwin Commencement Prize Winner Weatherspoon ’25
Weatherspoon’s address was called “Purpose,” and in it, they describe the day as “an answered prayer.” Since the age of twelve, they had been “reaching for this moment,” said Weatherspoon, a first-generation college graduate and published poet whose debut collection, To, Too Many Children, won national acclaim for its portrayal of inner-city life, poverty, and trauma.

“As a young child, I was homeless, sleeping on those cold shelter floors,” they said. “My brother and I used to panhandle outside of grocery stores, begging our community members to feed us. We were too hungry to perform well in school. Our lives were totally and completely ruled by the poverty that we were born into. All the while, I harbored a second hunger, a hunger for knowledge. I stole phonics books from my elementary school and used them to teach my older brother how to read. Together we studied in the dark and prayed for better lives.”

Throughout these difficult times, said Weatherspoon, they always believed in a better future and felt a sense of a purpose. “Purpose is what helped my single mother raise her two kids, it’s what helped me survive foster care when she couldn’t,” they told the Class of 2025. “I am living proof that the future is malleable, and that your voice is all it takes to shape it.” Read Weatherspoon’s address in full.

After the student speeches, Zaki presented a memorial tribute to K Zhan ’25, who died in March last year. Parents of the Asian studies and government double major joined ceremony remotely from California. "K’s professors and friends remember her with deep affection and admiration," said Zaki. "One professor described her as vocal, talented, sunny, social, strong, sharp, and daring. Another called her 'one of a kind'—a student who was 'dogged in pursuit of what she thought was true and right and good' and never afraid to stand up for what she believed."

Zaki invited Asian studies and cinema studies Professor Shu-chin Tsui, who worked closely with K, onto the stage to accept a diploma in memoriam for K, "who will always be part of the Bowdoin Class of 2025."

Honorary Degree Recipients
Bowdoin awarded two honorary degrees at the ceremony: 

• Physician, medical educator, and former chair of the Bowdoin College Board of Trustees Michele Cyr ’76. 
• Renowned Wabanaki basket maker Jeremy Frey.

Senior Class President Alejandro Ramos ’25 also spoke. In his remarks, Ramos urged his classmates to embrace the uncertainty that lies ahead, because "certainty is the death of possibility," he said. "It is for you to determine what your future will be because in uncertainty we flourish. It is in uncertainty that science tries to find light in the dark, while the social sciences reflect who we are and the humanities paint the blank canvas of our existence. Our liberation lies in the uncertain and nothingness, a stage waiting to be performed on." Read Ramos's remarks.

Baccalaureate degrees were then awarded to members of the graduating class. This was followed by a performance of “Raise Songs to Bowdoin,” led by vocalists from the Class of 2025.

The Commencement Exercises were officially concluded  by Winkley Professor of Latin and Greek and College Marshal Barbara Weiden Boyd.

The ceremony was bookended with music from Chandler’s Band and their renditions of the “Commencement March” and the “Recessional March.”

Read about Bowdoin’s Baccalaureate ceremony held Friday, May 23, 2025, in the Watson Arena.