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Thousands of graduates, Harvard faculty, friends, and family crowded into Harvard Yard on Thursday for the University’s 374th Commencement Exercises. The celebration showed a united campus in support of international students as a federal judge upheld a block on the Trump administration’s attempt to end Harvard’s enrollment of international students during the exercises.

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Students from Kirkland House follow the Bedford Minutemen through Harvard Yard at the start of the 374th Commencement. The colonial reenactors, a long-standing tradition, lead the House’s procession into Tercentenary Theatre beneath overcast skies.

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As students processed into Harvard Yard, more than 50 demonstrators lined Massachusetts Avenue holding pro-Palestine signs.

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Organized by groups including Massachusetts Peace Action, Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voice for Peace, the protest spanned the length from Johnston Gate to Widener Gate, with signs that held messages like “Let Gaza Live,” as graduates and families waited in line to enter the Yard.

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Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana delivered his final address to graduating seniors as he prepares to step down after more than a decade in the role, which received a warm standing ovation.

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A graduating student cheered while sending a stream of bubbles into the air during her procession into Tercentenary Theatre. Bubbles, clappers, and flags all marked a joyful start to the 374th Commencement.

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Khurana joined the Class of 2025 in celebration one last time with his signature enthusiasm by snapping a selfie with cheering students during the undergraduate procession.

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Students and faculty used visual symbols to show support for Harvard’s international community. Over 800 white flowers, distributed by student organizers the night before Commencement, were worn throughout the Yard as a gesture of unity. Faculty members added circular stickers reading, “Without our international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” creating a quiet but widespread display of solidarity.

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Members of the Harvard University Band and Commencement Choir perform as graduates take their seats in Tercentenary Theatre.

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Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 opened the 374th Commencement with a call for curiosity and humility, receiving a standing ovation after acknowledging graduates from “around the world, just as it should be.”

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Aidan R. Scully ’25 delivered the Latin Salutatory — an address presented entirely in Latin — to open the ceremony. His speech was titled De Hereditatibus, or “On Foreign Inheritances.”

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Thor N. Reimann ’25 delivered the Senior English Address, “The World is not Conclusion,” using an Emily Dickinson poem to frame his message. He praised Harvard for standing up to federal pressure and spoke about the University’s history of leading during difficult times, calling on his classmates to continue that legacy.

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Yurong “Luanna” Jiang, a student at the Harvard Kennedy School, delivered the Graduate English Address, celebrating international diversity and calling for empathy in divided times.

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Graduates from across Harvard’s schools carried playful tokens that reflected their fields of study and school traditions. Education graduates held up books, Law School graduates raised wooden gavels, and Kennedy School graduates waved inflatable globes – all small symbols to collectively celebrate this milestone.

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Harvard awarded honorary degrees to six recipients. They included basketball legend and Class Day speaker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; UC Berkeley scholar and activist Elaine H. Kim; Nobel Prize-winning economist Esther Duflo of MIT; climate scientist Richard B. Alley of Penn State; Academy Award-winning actress Rita Moreno; and physician and author Abraham Verghese, who also delivered the Commencement Address.

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Carolyn Hao ’26 sings “Somewhere” from West Side Story as honorary degree recipient Rita Moreno, who starred in the film, quietly joins in. Moreno, visibly emotional, sang through tears during the performance.

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Commencement speaker Abraham Verghese addresses the Class of 2025 with a message of compassion, clarity, and courage. Verghese, a physician and author, condemned recent federal actions against Harvard, praised the University’s legal resistance, and reflected on his own experience as an immigrant and doctor.

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Middlesex County Sheriff Peter J. Koutoujian strikes his gavel three times to officially adjourn Harvard’s 374th Commencement. The ceremony concluded at 12:11 p.m. as the bells of Memorial Church rang across Tercentenary Theatre.