“The conclusion of your undergraduate career is much like reaching any destination. To know how far you have traveled, don’t consider time alone. Consider your triumphs and defeats, your pain and tears, your joy and your laughter,” said President Alan M. Garber in his 2025 Baccalaureate Address to the Harvard College Class of 2025. Garber said that “the relationships that you developed and the challenges you overcame” should be remembered.
“As you savor your memories, I hope that you will experience an exquisite awareness, perhaps for the first time, that all of these things—the moments, large and small, the places and the people, the p-sets and the papers, the sights and sounds—and other senses of being here on this campus in your favorite spots with your favorite folks will very soon stir in your young heart the bittersweet pangs of nostalgia.”
Garber looked back at his own Harvard College graduation 49 years ago, he noted, in relation to the people he grew close with.
“I felt profound gratitude,” he said. “First, for my friends and classmates, their aspirations and their dreams. Their skills and their intensity about nearly everything intimidated me, astonished me, and ultimately inspired me. They changed how I thought about myself. We went through so much together as students. Much of what seemed like crushing blows then seem like laughing matters now. And much that we thought mattered little turned out to matter a lot. The relationships we build, especially with our fellow students, matter over a lifetime.”
He asked the graduating class to reflect on their own time at Harvard. How did their home away from home, confidants, and cheerleaders change from first meeting each other? How did they stay the same?
“Articulate your appreciation and use me as an excuse to be a bit more effusive than you might be otherwise, because this is the perfect time to be profuse in your thanks and praise. You will be remembered for it, even if—especially if—it tests the boundary of credibility.”
For Garber, the relationships he had at Harvard changed his life. He shared an anecdote from his sophomore year when an economics resident tutor in Dunster House, Jerome Culp, convinced him to switch concentrations from molecular and cellular biology to economics. Garber explained that he made the switch because he had very much enjoyed Ec10, an introductory economics course, a remark met with laughter from the class:
“Jerome also suggested that I take more challenging courses and become a research assistant. That conversation changed my life. I still think about it all these years later. Who inspired you, who gave you the attention and gentle nudging you needed exactly when you needed it? Who kindled your true ambition? Send that note that you have been meaning to send to a mentor who meant more to you than they might realize.
Though we as teachers can seem to know everything, or at least seem to think we know everything, we’re all thrilled when we receive confirmation that we're truly helping our students gain new insights about the subjects we teach and acquire more of the skills that will serve them throughout their lives. Your generous praise will be cherished for years to come.”
Finally, Garber expressed his appreciation for Harvard in these tumultuous times. He explained that, although an imperfect institution, Harvard “is a beautiful and enduring expression of humanity's confidence in the power of knowledge to change the lives of individuals, the prospects of communities, and the course of human progress.”
Garber explained that he regards the graduating class as a way to advocate for human progress through education.
“The best way to acknowledge Harvard and what this time has meant to you is to advocate for education,” he said. “Not only higher education—education from pre-school to post-doc and beyond. Everything we might achieve, morally, scientifically, technologically and even economically, is grounded in knowledge. Where else are you more likely to find a path to knowledge and all that it unlocks for humanity than in education?
“Let your gratitude on Commencement day become your attitude in life,” he continued. “Make it your mission to put more people on trajectories that yield knowledge and understanding, that build capacities for listening and learning, that generate genuine empathy and sympathy, ensure that the journeys of others look more like your own.”
As Garber closed his address, he set the Harvard Class of 2025 off to new beginnings.
“We are proud of you, and we are eager to see all the good that your work will enable in the years to come. May these final 44 hours, give or take some minutes, be filled with opportunities to celebrate how far you have traveled since your arrival. You have done so much,” he concluded. “Rest on your laurels, but not for too long. The world, with its countless magnificent destinations, awaits you.”
The Baccalaureate Address is a tradition that originated from Cambridge University in the thirteenth century. This tradition carried over to Harvard when it held its first Baccalaureate service in the seventeenth century, when an invitation was extended to the University president to address the graduating College class. This year, the spiritual roots of the Baccalaureate Address—to form links between the secular institution and its religious origins—were honored by blessings from Harvard chaplains and traditional student readings in Sanskrit, Arabic, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi/Hawaiian, Gurmukhi, Tibetan, Hebrew, and Malayalam. Hymns were also performed: Give Ear, Ye Children, to My Law at the beginning of the service and Deus omnium creator at the end, as well as two student-composed anthems, Alma Mater, Hail to Thee by Eve Jones ’25 and We Found Love by Isaac Newman ’25.
