Boston Mayor Michelle Wu Encourages UMass Boston Grads to Think About What Is Possible

College Confers Levels to 4,013 Graduates

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu referred to as on the Class of 2022 to embrace the radicalness of chance in her keynote tackle at UMass Boston’s undergraduate graduation on the Boston Conference and Exhibition Middle Friday morning.

“There’ll at all times, at all times be those that attempt to inform you what’s not possible. What’s harmful, and radical, and impractical—what can’t be performed as a result of it’s by no means been performed earlier than,” she stated.

“However at this second in time, we want change too urgently to not strive.”

As she started her speech, Mayor Wu seemed out on the ocean of 10,000 graduates, members of the family and buddies in attendance, and pointed to what she referred to as an “unbelievable transformation.”

“[UMass Boston] has gone from Boston’s best-kept secret to a public analysis college that is still dedicated to its neighborhood, whereas being famend across the nation,” she stated. “In the present day, UMass Boston is probably the most numerous public college in New England…. Each new class of graduates has expanded the horizons of chance—opening doorways and widening paths for these following of their footsteps.”

This yr’s graduates hail from greater than 110 international locations around the globe, and communicate 100 totally different languages. Greater than 50 % of UMass Boston college students are first-generation faculty college students. There have been 120 veterans and repair members graduating this yr.

Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco awarded Mayor Wu with a Chancellor’s Medal for Distinguished Service on the ceremony. Wu, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, is the primary girl and particular person of colour elected to guide town of Boston as mayor.

“We’re right here within the birthplace of America, and of our democracy. However—till six months in the past—in our metropolis’s almost 400 years of historical past, we had by no means elected an individual of colour, or girl, or a mother, as mayor,” she stated. “After I first ran for workplace a decade in the past, I used to be instructed again and again that it might be not possible, as a result of Boston didn’t have a historical past of electing girls or individuals of colour or younger individuals or individuals not born in Boston. And it was true. However as a result of all these limitations had been issues I couldn’t change about myself, and since I felt the urgency of fixing programs that weren’t working, I ran anyway, and received.”

This yr, UMass Boston conferred 4,013 levels (2,815 undergraduate; 1,062 graduate; 136 doctoral). The college held two commencements in in the future— with an undergraduate ceremony kicking off festivities within the morning, and graduate college students processing later within the afternoon. The college additionally hosted a doctoral hooding ceremony the day earlier than.

Chancellor Suárez-Orozco presided on the ceremony, applauding the outstanding achievements of this yr’s graduating class.

He stated that each single member of the Class of 2022 has one thing distinctive to present – a ability, a socio-emotional sensibility, or information that cracks the code on the problems of the day and thus serves us all.   

“Among the many worthiest outcomes of a school training is discovering that one factor that you just love to take action a lot that the solar can’t come up quick sufficient – and in doing so, changing into an unstoppable pressure for good. I’m betting that the majority of you within the Class of 2022 are on that pathway,” he stated. 

Chancellor Suárez-Orozco referred to as on graduates to be civil, explaining that civility – residents relating to one another in pursuit of the widespread good – entails listening, appreciating variations, and exhibiting mutual respect and goodwill.  

“To sort out the challenges of our occasions, civility is important,” he stated. “Grappling with information prepares you to be residents who’re not spectators and who will not throw up their palms. Quite the opposite, your training has unleashed your civility and secured your home within the area of consequential concepts and progress. 

“At UMass Boston, there is a humiliation of riches on this regard. And the world wants extra of it, extra of the civility that our college students, school, and alumni provide.”

UMass Trustee Mary Burns recommended college students’ willpower and self-discipline.

“You, the Class of 2022, have labored onerous to get to at present: You will have dedicated your self to an vital objective and you’ve got achieved it. A lot of you will have performed this whereas working, assembly household duties, performing neighborhood service, and lest we neglect, the COVID pandemic, which unexpectedly disrupted all of our lives for the previous two years,” she stated.

Pupil Audio system Share Experiences, Supply Recommendation to Classmates

MG Xiong, a philosophy and public coverage main with minors in Spanish language and girls, gender, and sexuality research, obtained this yr’s John F. Kennedy Award and served as undergraduate speaker. Xiong, an Alaska native, will be part of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition as a program supervisor upon commencement, and pursue a PhD in inclusive training.

“As a first-generation faculty scholar like so lots of you, as a Hmong, transgender Bostonian from Alaska, as a Beacon, I’m honored and privileged to face right here at present to congratulate all of you, every of you,” they stated. 

Xiong inspired their fellow graduates to be “savagely grateful.” 

“Love unguardedly. Say thanks. Sit in your gratitude. You possess the limitless energy handy out kindness to others and be a producer of pleasure. So be beneficiant. Maintain one another accountable to this dedication to like,” they stated. “Make it such that wherever you belong, so long as you’re there, there is not going to be any shortage of affection or scarcity of worthiness. Love exists inside you. And subsequently it exists in our neighborhood. Since you exist in our neighborhood.”

Courtney Humphries, who was the coed speaker on the graduate ceremony, was a journalist reporting on science and concrete points earlier than coming to UMass Boston to earn her PhD in Environmental Sciences. Her dissertation seems to be on the previous, current, and way forward for Boston’s waterfront, how town is making ready to face sea stage rise, and the daunting dangers that it brings.

“UMass Boston is the proper place to do this sort of work,” Humphries stated. “Greater than every other college or faculty within the space, it’s embedded in its neighborhood, on this metropolis, and on this area. We are able to and may try for world class analysis and training, however we must also acknowledge that our energy comes from the standard of those native connections.”

She urged her classmates to think about their careers like a tree. Whereas they could attain larger and unfold out in numerous instructions, they should be rooted in one thing greater than themselves, she defined.

“As we do our work, we make new connections, we strengthen current ones, we develop new branches, and collectively and every in our personal methods we assist to create the soil on which different individuals’s work will develop,” she stated. “So, as we transfer on from our graduate faculty expertise, let’s take into consideration the bigger panorama we hope to be part of and contribute to, … and let’s join with each other and develop the panorama we wish to see sooner or later.”  

College Honors Standout School, Honorary Diploma Recipients

Three school members obtained 2022 Chancellor’s Awards on the graduate ceremony: Professor of Psychology Laurel Wainwright, Affiliate Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Affiliate Professor of French Pratima Prasad, and Professor Mark Warren from the Division of Public Coverage and Public Affairs for his or her distinguished educating, service, and scholarship, respectively. 

The college additionally celebrated the 2021 Chancellor’s Award winners: Professor of Physics Christopher Fuchs, Affiliate Professor of Molecular Ecotoxicology Helen Poynton, and Professors of Africana Research Tony Van Der Meer and Keith Jones for his or her distinguished scholarship, educating, and repair, respectively. 

The Chancellor’s Awards for Distinguished Scholarship, Instructing, and Service celebrates school excellence by recognizing the accomplishments of members who’ve demonstrated distinctive contributions in one of many three main areas of school duty.

Chancellor Suárez-Orozco introduced three honorary levels to exemplary leaders whose life and work function an inspiration for the UMass Boston neighborhood at a doctoral hooding ceremony on Thursday. Sisters Marie-Marguerite B. Clérié and Guylène B. Salès had been individually acknowledged as training and human rights advocates and as co-founders of the Obligation of Reminiscence Basis, which was created in honor of their father who was executed by the Duvalier regime in Haiti. Robert Hildreth is a passionate advocate for larger training entry and was honored for his basis work that helps deprived college students navigate the school preparation course of. A pacesetter in social and environmental justice points impacting the well being of individuals on the island of Vieques, Robert L. Rabin Siegal was honored in November 2021 earlier than he handed earlier this yr.