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Class of 2016 told 'Let no one stand in the way of your ambition'

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Class of 2016 told 'Let no one stand in the way of your ambition'

New York Times investigative journalist and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Rukmini Callimachi had a clear message for the 433 members of Connecticut College's Class of 2016: Find something you are truly passionate about, pursue it relentlessly and don't let anyone hold you back.

Callimachi told the story of her own winding and often turbulent path to success, from being turned down for a job as a waitress after graduating from Dartmouth (because her Dartmouth degree didn't afford her any waitressing experience, she was told), to dropping out of a graduate program in linguistics to covering small-town Christmas tree lighting ceremonies and discovering—while writing about people on welfare—that she qualified for food stamps.

At the age of 40, she finally achieved her dream of working for The New York Times.

"I'd be lying to you if I didn’t tell you I came very close to giving up," she said. "If I made it, it's simply because I kept going."

But Callimachi said she was bothered by the fact that as she climbed few women colleagues climbed with her. When she was named the West Africa bureau chief for the Associated Press, she discovered she was one of only seven female bureau chiefs working for a company with more than 50 bureaus.

"Much ink has been spilled enumerating the obstacles women face as they climb the career ladder, and yes those obstacles are historic and endemic—they are there and they are real," she said, speaking directly to the 264 female members of the Class of 2016. "But I believe now more than ever that what is holding us back is not those obstacles, but our inability as women to imagine ourselves at the top.

"Let no one — not society, not your family, not a boyfriend, and certainly not yourself — stand in the way of your ambition."

Rukmini Callimachi delivers the keynote address to the Class of 2016 at Connecticut College's 98th Commencement.

Prior to her speech, Callimachi was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters by Connecticut College President Katherine Bergeron.

During her remarks, Bergeron said it has been an honor to watch the evolution of "the beautiful and unconventional" Class of 2016.

"Since your arrival in the summer of 2012, your class has witnessed the beginnings of a slow evolution at this College," Bergeron said, referencing the physical renewal of the campus during one of the more active periods of rebuilding in recent history. This period of rebuilding marks an effort to renovate the College's approach to liberal arts education and has resulted in a pioneering new curriculum that members of the Class of 2016 helped inspire, among other things.

"But just as you have watched the evolution of this College, so have we watched you evolve," she said. "Seeing that transformation is the whole reason why we are here. It’s one of the truly great rewards of the academic life, and it is what we are celebrating today."

President Katherine Bergeron delivers her address to the Class of 2016 at the College's 98th Commencement.

The graduates were also addressed by one of their own: Mia Haas-Goldberg, an international relations and history double major from Manhattan Beach, California, who was chosen from among an exceptional group of nominees as the senior class speaker. Likening graduating from college to cliff jumping, Haas-Goldberg told her classmates that their four years at the College have prepared them to take the plunge into uncertainty.

We have learned to take risks in decision-making and engage in meaningful dialogue. So whether the future appears clear and exciting or jumbled and frightening, we know how to bring meaning to our lives and inspire change for those around us," she said.

Mia Haas-Goldberg '16 delivers her senior class speech at the College's 98th Commencement.

During the ceremony, the Oakes and Louise Ames Prize for most outstanding honors thesis was awarded to Lauren Marazzi, a self-designed bioinformatics major from Wayne, New Jersey, for her thesis, "Computational Methods for Developmental Gene Expression Analysis in Axolotls." Marazzi's interdisciplinary work focuses on computational approaches to studying developmental gene regulation in axolotls, or Mexican salamanders, and contributes to the larger fields of bioinformatics, computational biology, developmental biology and genomics.

The College awarded the Anna Lord Strauss Medal for outstanding public or community service, including service to the College, to Taryn Kitchen, a Latin American studies major from Norton, Massachusetts. Throughout her years at the College, Kitchen has been a student leader in the Office of Volunteers for Community Service and has worked in partnership programs in multiple classrooms in New London, advancing the achievement of children and youth. She also works with students, staff and faculty to advance equity on campus and has served as a peer tutor in the Human Development Department and a senior fellow for community collaborations with the College’s Office of Sustainability. 

At the conclusion of the ceremony, graduates Louise Brownsberger and Katherine McDonald sang the traditional Alma Mater before being joined by Bergeron to surprise the audience with a lively R&B version that included musical accompaniment by Drew Andre '16, Joseph Donohue '16, Kolton Harris '14 and Samuel McKeown '16, along with Bergeron's husband, Butch Rovan, on the saxophone.

Commencement events began Saturday with the induction of 45 graduating seniors into Phi Beta Kappa, the national academic honor society; certificate ceremonies for senior scholars in the College's centers for interdisciplinary scholarship; and special gatherings for student-athletes, Posse scholars and Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows. Baccalaureate, the annual celebration of the spiritual diversity of the graduating class, was Saturday afternoon and featured a keynote address, "Dramatic Departures," by Associate Professor of History Jen Manion, with a special appearance by Professor of Dance David Dorfman MFA'81.

Class of 2016 By the Numbers

  • Graduates represent 28 states and 17 countries
  • 201 members of the class studied abroad
  • 57 are the first in their families to graduate from college
  • 153 graduates earned Latin honors (33 earned Summa Cum Laude; 66 earned Magna Cum Laude; 54 earned Cum Laude)
  • 199 members of the class earned departmental honors
  • 45 graduates were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the national academic honor society
429 Bachelor of Arts degrees awarded
4 Master of Arts degrees awarded
122 Double Majors
4 Triple Majors

Photo Gallery 

Rukmini Callimachi delivers the keynote address to the Class of 2016 at Connecticut College's 98th Commencement.
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Watch the official video recording and check out our favorite photos from Commencement 2016: See the full album on flickr.

For more on Commencement, visit www.conncoll.edu/commencement.




May 22, 2016

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