Commencement 2023


For a Bright Future, Hold Fast to a North Star

Hold fast to your North Star. Choose it consciously, and make sure it reflects your values. Let it steer what you do and how you serve. As you rise in your careers, you will encounter many different agendas and value systems.


Advice From a Harvard Elder

Members of the Harvard graduating class of 2023, it is my hope that despite shouldering the burden of debts and the power to reform the education system for future generations, you will prosper.


Celebrating the Stories

This is an essay of appreciation for all the students whose time here has been defined by milestones that they may never share with their professors or future employers. The ones who arrived on campus burdened with sometimes difficult stories, but who then also came to realize that they didn’t have to be wholly defined by those stories — that they had the ability to become authors of new stories, stories of their own.


What Kind of Intelligence?

As you go forth from the protected space of Harvard, don’t be afraid of tech — use it in all the ways that enhance our current imperfect realities. But don’t forget the immense power of human collaboration in the face of staggering obstacles.


Public Service Is Its Own Reward

Whether it is in your career or as a volunteer in your community, I encourage you to do something to serve. Advance your career, yes, but also measure your success but what you do for others — students taught, victims counseled, patients healed.


To the Class of 2023: On Self-Censorship

To express yourself fully means to fashion your own identity. And to do that, the danger of being offended in your identity becomes a vital point: You must be free both to take offense when you are disrespected and to give offense when your own identity demands it.


Indifference Is the Enemy of Democracy

I have spent my professional life at Human Rights Watch taking on powerful forces. The task can seem daunting, but I have seen the enormous difference that even a handful of individuals can make. Your generation is perhaps better placed than any previous one to make itself heard.


Striving in Times of Strife

Our lives are frequently upended by uncontrolled and unforeseen events that shake our confidence in the future. In that event, we can either falter or become even more determined to engage in action that centers on the common good.


A Post-Covid Campus by Students, for Students

Harvard is a university drenched in history, influenced by a chain of traditions, norms, and practices stretching back centuries. The pandemic’s blip on this record has torn us away from institutional inertia, offering us near-limitless potential for what our campus could look like.


Former President of Costa Rica Urges HSPH Graduates to Love What They Do

Former President of Costa Rica Carlos Alvarado Quesada addressed the Harvard School of Public Health’s Class of 2023 at their convocation Wednesday, encouraging graduates to “do what you love, love what you do.”


In Photos: Affinity Celebrations for the Class of 2023

Harvard graduates from historically marginalized groups attended affinity celebrations on Monday and Tuesday, prior to Thursday Commencement exercises. At the ceremonies, students received a stole or commemorative gift created for their affinity group.


Ban Ki-moon, Former UN Leader, Calls on Harvard Kennedy School Grads to Embrace Global Citizenship

Ban Ki-moon, who served as secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016, slammed the Russian invasion of Ukraine and called on Harvard Kennedy School graduates to take action on the climate crisis during the school’s graduation address Wednesday afternoon.


‘How to Survive the Fall in Three Easy Steps’: Michelle Yeoh Addresses the Harvard Law School Class of 2023

Academy Award-winning actress Michelle Yeoh addressed Harvard Law School’s Class of 2023 during the school’s Class Day ceremony at Holmes Field Wednesday afternoon, sharing advice for graduates as they embark on the next stage of their legal careers.


The Changing Faces of a Harvard Education

To meet this uncertain moment, each figure within Harvard’s multifaceted model of education will need to face one another and work in tandem, producing a kaleidoscopic vision of our University’s future in which all students, affiliates, and graduates may see themselves accurately reflected amidst ongoing change.


Ruth Simmons Urges HGSE Graduates to Inspire Future Learners

Ruth J. Simmons — a former president of Brown University and the first Black leader of an Ivy League institution — told the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Class of 2023 to “nourish and inspire generations of learners” during the school’s convocation ceremony Wednesday, one day before University-wide Commencement exercises.


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