Commencement 2025: A salute to friendship and achievement — with confetti

Yale’s newest graduates basked in the glow of a singular send-off Monday, full of well wishes and ritual — but also burnished by the presence of a Nobel laureate, a jazz legend, an AI visionary, and a beaming leader guiding her first Yale Commencement as president.

President Maurie McInnis lauded the industry, spirit, and intellectual moxie of the graduates, her words carried on a cool breeze blowing across Old Campus. She also saluted the families, friends, and teachers who supported those efforts each step of the way.

From his seat amid a sea of celebrants, Salvador Gómez-Colón, a graduating senior from Puerto Rico, felt the emotions of four years’ worth of intense friendships, rigorous studies, and personal milestones flow through him, as they had been all morning.

“No one told me commencement was so emotional,” said Gómez-Colón, a history major and class marshal who carried the flag of Ezra Stiles College during the ceremony. “I found lifelong friends here who will support each other forever.”

Yale’s 324th Commencement began, as is custom, in a happy tangle of cap-and-gown clad students threading their way into Old Campus in residential college and professional school queues that formed blocks away in nearly all directions. Waiting family and friends craned their necks for a first glimpse of their graduates. Peppy trumpet blasts filled the air; best friends bro-hugged and suitemates air-kissed.

“Four years went by so fast,” said Pranav Pattatathunaduvil, a global affairs major from Benjamin Franklin College. He said Yale has helped him become more resilient, ask better questions, and thrive in an environment of excellence and friendship.

“I’ll miss the sense of knowing that friends are always around,” said Pattatathunaduvil, of Plano, Texas. “There are so many little stories, every day, that I’ve been a part of.”

As the day unfolded, the graduates would culminate their Yale experience in a swirl of possibilities and superlatives. The university conferred nearly 4,400 degrees — including about 1,800 undergraduate degrees — to students from Yale College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Yale’s 13 professional schools.

University Chaplain Maytal Saltiel offered a soulful opening prayer.

“Loving and divine spirit called on by many names, we gather today as a beautiful mosaic of your creation,” she said. “We come in humility and celebration, having delved into the nooks and crannies of your handiwork, unearthing the elements of your truth and light, in the library stacks and laboratories, studios and stadiums, clinics and classrooms, of this campus.”

One by one, deans from each school presented their respective degree candidates to McInnis for the conferral of degrees — with all their “rights and responsibilities.” (In certain cases, such as the law school, the president playfully pledged that she “shall” confer the degrees at a later date; some Yale schools conclude the academic year later than the rest.)

As is tradition, one of the biggest commencement cheers — along with a burst of confetti — arose when the Yale School of Nursing degrees were awarded.

“It means everything,” said Camille Bundy, who wore a stole representing the school and her sorority, as well as an African kente stole. She received a master of science in nursing degree, specializing in family nurse practice.

“I keep telling my family it’s a collective degree,” Bundy said. “My great grandmother was a housecleaner. This is for her and for my family and for everyone back in Chicago. This degree was not done alone.”

And then came the degrees conferred for lifetimes of excellence and achievement.

University Provost Scott Strobel joined McInnis at the podium to award eight honorary degrees to award-winning actress, director, and choreographer Debbie Allen; Nobel Prize-winning chemical engineer Frances H. Arnold; Grammy Award-winning jazz double bassist Ronald L. Carter; trailblazing Episcopal Bishop Michael B. Curry ’78 M.Div.; distinguished scholar, historian, and literary critic Henry Louis Gates Jr. ’73; Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and law professor Annette Gordon-Reed; pioneering computer scientist and artificial intelligence authority Fei-Fei Li; and renowned Yale Sterling Professor of Chemistry emeritus Peter B. Moore ’61.

McInnis encouraged the graduates to find inspiration in the career journeys, accomplishments, and personal stories of the eight honorary degree recipients.

After Allen received her honorary degree, the Yale University Concert Band struck up the theme song from the 1980s television show “Fame,” among Allen’s many claims to fame, and she broke into dance. The crowd cheered.

(See related honorary degrees story.)

There were accomplishments to salute and profound joys to behold in every direction on Old Campus.

Hongyi Xu, for example, was excited to have his parents, who had traveled from China, on hand to watch him receive a master of public health degree, with a concentration in biostatistics, from the Yale School of Public Health. When Xu received his undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut, his parents were unable to attend the ceremony due to COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions in place at the time.

“This is a big celebration for my family,” said Xu, who aims to join the pharmaceutical industry. “We’re enjoying this time together.”

Staff writers Meg Dalton and Karen Guzman contributed to this report.