This morning, over 1600 Harvard undergraduates will process into Tercentenary Theater as seniors and leave as alumni. It is one of life’s seminal moments, when a student enters the “real world” beyond the banks of the Charles. We wish these seniors nothing but the very best.
Dexter Gate, near Wigglesworth Hall, is emblazoned with the command, “Enter to grow in wisdom.” It commissions those exiting to “Depart to serve better thy country and thy kind.” What advice could be more sorely needed in an era of unprecedented political divisiveness, increasing economic challenges, and environmental threats that put at stake the human experiment itself? If the legacy of the Class of 2015 is a culture of service informed by Harvard’s wisdom, the graduates will have done well indeed. Congratulations and good luck to the Class of 2015!