Steven Maheshwary: “Confidence, in a Handful of Dust”

Student speech at Harvard College Class Day 2012

Steven Maheshwary

In his Harvard Oration, one of four student speeches on Class Day, Steven Maheshwary ’12 stressed the importance of enthusiasm and urged his fellow classmates on Class Day 2012 to prepare for a life beyond the fixed paths they have followed up until now: “The vast world we meet next imposes ambiguity—there are no set Core or GenEd classes to take, no consistent HUDS menu to rely on, and the commute may even be farther than the plane ride between the River and the Quad. And this can offer a lot of pain and confusion, but the best gain made from pain is the reign of enthusiasm.”

Sub topics

You might also like

Harvard College Admits Class of 2028

A smaller undergraduate applicant cohort—the first since Supreme Court ended affirmative action 

Studying ChatGPT Like a Psychologist

Cognitive science helps penetrate the AI “black box”

Reparations as Public Health

A Harvard forum on the racial health gap

Most popular

Harvard College Admits Class of 2028

A smaller undergraduate applicant cohort—the first since Supreme Court ended affirmative action 

Diagnosis by Fiction

The “Healing Quartet,” by “Samuel Shem,” probes medicine—and life.

AWOL from Academics

Behind students' increasing pull toward extracurriculars

More to explore

Darker Days

The current disquiets compared to Harvard’s Vietnam-era traumas

Making Space

The natural history of Junko Yamamoto’s art and architecture

Spellbound on Stage

Actor and young adult novelist Aislinn Brophy