Commencement 2015

The sights and sounds of Harvard’s joyful 364th Commencement in the Yard.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, is this year’s Radcliffe Medal recipient. Ginsburg will be honored at a luncheon on May 29 during Radcliffe Day, an annual celebration of Radcliffe.

While at Harvard, Veronica Gloria ’15 worked to empower first-generation and Latino students like herself.

Lauren A. Taylor, who arrived at Harvard Divinity School in 2012 with a book contract and a desire to delve into global health partnerships, wants to change the public discourse around health care.

In addition to receiving an honorary degree, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick will be principal speaker at the Afternoon Program. Other degree recipients include pioneers in art history, cooperation theory, emotional intelligence, and the sciences, along with leading figures in opera, human rights, and education.

The Gazette spoke with six faculty members about the formative books that shaped their lives and even their scholarship. From the quirky to the downright serious, their responses offer a varied and candid look at what resonates.

Nishin Nathwani ’15 spent a gap year backpacking in India; an advocate for outsiders, eventually he decided to give college a try.

When Elizabeth Strong ’15 came to Harvard, she was an athlete principally focused on competitive skiing. But gradually, she found a new passion in mechanical engineering.

Outgoing Harvard Alumni Association President Cynthia A. Torres ’80, M.B.A. ’84, is passing the leadership to Paul L. Choi ’86, J.D. ’89.

New York financial expert George Koo is hoping to use his degree in international relations to propel him to a Ph.D. and later a potential job at the White House helping guide financial policy.

Organizers see strong collaboration, solid alumni engagement, efforts already bearing fruit.

A joyous peal of bells will ring throughout Cambridge today. In celebration of the city of Cambridge and of the country’s oldest university — and of our earlier history when…

After more than a decade as director, Thomas Lentz is departing, with sparkling, renewed Harvard Art Museums as his legacy.

The University in 2014-15 saw milestones with the reopening of the Harvard Art Museums and the renaming of the T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Harvard’s Schools are hammering out construction projects to meet modern educational needs.

The Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) announced that Charles J. Egan Jr. ’54, Michael E.A. Gellert ’53, Thomas W. Lentz Jr., A.M. ’81, Ph.D. ’85, Sandra O. Moose, A.M. ’65, Ph.D. ’68, and Robert D. Reischauer ’63 will receive the 2015 Harvard Medal.

Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, were Harvard Law School’s Class Day speakers on Wednesday.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences awarded the Centennial Medal to four of its alumni on May 27, honoring their “contributions to society as they have emerged from [their] graduate education at Harvard.”

Harvard’s online courses evolve, as hybrid models effectively continue to mix remote learning with on-campus interaction.

Class Day speaker tells seniors that even as a Harvard student and a successful actress, she questioned her worth, but she learned to set her own goals

After his freshman year as College dean, Rakesh Khurana takes stock, and reinforces the importance of diversity.

Student orators plan messages of hope, kindness, commitment, and perspective.

At Harvard, many centers, courses, and collaborations maintain a sharp focus on the intellect, but they increasingly also are working to address everyday issues in life, and they’re crossing academic boundaries to do so more effectively.

Four Harvard seniors received their military assignments on Wednesday before family and friends during the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps commissioning ceremony in Tercentenary Theatre.

While most Harvard journeys start on campus, they rarely end there. More than 10,000 College alumni give back as steadfast volunteers, in more ways than one. Four alumni share why they dedicate their time and energy to Harvard.

Harvard president bids Class of ’15 farewell at Baccalaureate, telling members they should resist the call to be ruled by fear, even though it floods society.

Harvard’s traditional Phi Beta Kappa Literary Exercises showcased gifted graduates, gifted teachers, gifted members of the Class of 1965, and a poet and orator who both looked to the past to call up lessons for the future.

Harvard’s honorary degree recipients span history, with Benjamin Franklin, Helen Keller, John F. Kennedy, and Nelson Mandela being just a few among the hundreds over the past 364 commencements.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger reflects on predecessor George C. Marshall’s Commencement address at Harvard in 1947, which extended America’s hand to a battered Europe and, in so doing, helped to create a stable postwar order and an inclusive, long-term U.S. foreign policy.

Samantha Noh ’15 shares her memorable Harvard moment, connecting to a distant student past as part of the Yard archaeology digs .