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Commence wonderment
Ah, Harvard lore. It can be befuddling if you don’t know the history behind these age-old Commencement conventions. Salvete omnes! That’s “Hello, everyone!” in Latin, in case you didn’t know. And...
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A picnic in the Yard
There was plenty of singing and dancing despite the heat Wednesday (Aug. 4) as Harvard hosted hundreds of older Cambridge residents at the 35th Annual Senior Picnic at Tercentenary Theatre. The picnic...
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Harvard’s 360th Commencement
Morning Exercises To accommodate the increasing number of those wishing to attend Harvard’s Commencement Exercises, the following guidelines are proposed to facilitate admission into Tercentenary...
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Poehler express
Comedian and actress Amy Poehler has been selected as this year’s Senior Class Day speaker. Poehler will address the Class of 2011, their families, and guests in Harvard Yard’s Tercentenary Theatre on...
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Harvard announces plans to mark 375th anniversary
Harvard University, the nation’s oldest institution of higher learning, will mark its 375th anniversary with a yearlong celebration highlighting its rich history and its dedication to teaching,...
View Article360th Commencement
Gates On Commencement morning the Harvard Yard gates will open at 6:45 a.m. Parents and guests of degree candidates who have tickets to attend the Morning Exercises should plan their arrival...
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Honor for Native American
Harvard University announced today that it will honor one of the first Native Americans ever to attend Harvard College with a special posthumous degree at its 2011 Commencement exercises on May 26....
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A degree delivered
As the Class of 2011 was taking a step toward the future, the University was pausing to remember its past with a special degree for a member of the Class of 1665, one of the first Native Americans to...
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Speaking for their class, to the world
During Morning Exercises, hundreds of graduating students will file into Tercentenary Theatre to have their degrees formally conferred. But only three will speak. Commencement orations have evolved at...
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Moments that make Commencement
After weeks of rain and cold, Harvard ended the 2010-11 year on a postcard-perfect day of azure skies and warming breezes. Most of the focus was on the speeches and rituals of Tercentenary Theatre,...
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2011 Harvard Commencement Timelapse
Experience all the hard work and excitement that goes into setting up and closing down Commencement week in four minutes.
View Article2011 Harvard University Class Day Speech by Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler addresses the class of 2011 during Commencement week at Harvard’s history Tercentenary Theater.
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2011 Harvard University Commencement Address by President Faust
President Drew Faust speaks at Harvard’s historic Tercentenary Theater during Commencement afternoon exercises on May 26, 2011
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2011 Harvard University Commencement Address by Liberian President Sirleaf
President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, speaks at Harvard’s 2011 Commencement afternoon exercises at history Tercentenary Theater on May 26, 2011.
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Banner year ahead
The arriving members of the Class of 2015 weren’t the only new additions brightening the Yard in the final days of August. Strollers in the center of campus might also have noticed a series of...
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A party starts 375th celebrations
Expect the unexpected as Harvard kicks off its 375th anniversary next month with a celebration in Tercentenary Theatre that promises to be anything but predictable. “No sea of chairs, no orations, no...
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Harvard’s 375th Anniversary Celebration
On Friday evening, October 14th 2011, in Tercentenary Theatre, Harvard’s extended family of faculty, students, staff, alumni and invited guests gathered together for a festive evening featuring...
View ArticleHarvard’s 361st Commencement
Morning Exercises To accommodate the increasing number of those wishing to attend Harvard’s Commencement Exercises, the following guidelines are proposed to facilitate admission into Tercentenary...
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Class Day speakers cover comedy, politics
The Class of 2012 will hear from one of popular culture’s rising stars and get a window into the way Washington works when “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) cast member Andy Samberg and Massachusetts...
View ArticleAndy Samberg Class Day 2012 Speech
Comedian Andy Samberg addresses graduating seniors at Class Day 2012 in Tercentenary Theatre
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Odes to joy
Harvard Gazette staff writers and photographers fanned out across campus to capture the Morning Exercises, which began when the gates opened at 6:45 a.m. When his honorary degree was announced, the...
View ArticleRep. Barney Frank ’61 Class Day 2012 Speech
Harvard alum and Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank ’61 delivers his class day speech to seniors in Tercentenary Theatre on May 23, 2012.
View ArticleFareed Zakaria Commencement 2012 Speech
Fareed Zakaria, a Harvard alumnus whose insights into the power shifts setting the stage for a new global era have made him a celebrated thought leader on international affairs, was the principal...
View ArticleIn the Yard, a changing of the guard
For those with an eye to nature, Harvard Yard is home to much more than freshmen. There are living fossils and dying icons. There are locusts and larch, hackberry and holly, Kentucky coffee and...
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Welcoming the Class of ’17
Before they began their academic lives at Harvard, the members of the Class of 2017 already experienced a taste of adversity, and demonstrated resiliency. In April, the manhunt for the second...
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The Memorial Church community
For more than 80 years, Harvard’s Memorial Church — its dizzying white spire rising above Tercentenary Theatre — has been an important campus landmark, and a spiritual home for the community. Created...
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Harvard’s 363rd Commencement
A special notice regarding Harvard’s 363rd Commencement Exercises to be held May 29. Morning Exercises To accommodate the increasing number of people wishing to attend Harvard’s Commencement...
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Lean in, speak out
In one of their final events together, Harvard College seniors huddled over hot beverages at Tercentenary Theatre Wednesday afternoon as they also drank in some clear-eyed wisdom about confronting...
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Snapshots of a sun-splashed day
Begone cold. Begone rain. This was Harvard’s Commencement Day, where the annual outdoor ceremony depends on cooperation from the heavens to run pleasantly, smoothly, effortlessly. The 363rd...
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This year’s chief marshal
As Harvard alumni and alumnae stream into Tercentenary Theatre for the University’s 364th Commencement on May 28, award-winning author and journalist Farai Chideya ’90 will lead the charge as this...
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Into the unknown
Surprise, discovery, connection. Under the glow of a September sun, members of the Class of 2019 were welcomed into Tercentenary Theatre on Tuesday by cheering upperclassmen in crimson football...
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New life for Memorial Church
On a campus as historic as Harvard’s, renewal never ends. Now it is Memorial Church’s turn. Immediately following Commencement, the centerpiece of Tercentenary Theatre will close as, for the remainder...
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Advice for ‘the opposite of underdogs’
“As you embark on your real-world journey and leave behind the ivy-covered, serial, stock dorms of Harvard, I do feel it’s my responsibility to tell you something meaningful, something that will not...
View ArticleSeminal speeches through the years
While it’s common for a modern-day speech to become instantly familiar to millions of viewers through television or the internet, few people experienced the direct impact of British Prime Minister...
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President Faust urges freshmen to connect with classmates, embrace diversity
In a time of uncertainty, challenge, and change, Harvard’s dedication to the pursuit of knowledge and truth and its unwavering devotion to inclusion can inspire a better, more tolerant world, Drew...
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Harvard’s Class Day speaker urges students to ‘protect and value the truth’...
Have the courage to tell the truth. At a time when truth can feel up for grabs and political journalists debate whether to call a lie a lie, award-winning Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie...
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Installation sets Harvard Yard aglow
On a recent afternoon, the artist Teresita Fernández sat in the center of her latest creation, admiring the view. The sun dipped, sending rays through the thousands of orange-and-yellow-pinstriped...
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Harvard inaugurates Larry Bacow as its 29th president
Harvard University inaugurated Larry Bacow as its 29th president on Friday afternoon in a celebration that was by turns solemn, thoughtful, and festive, and which drew together the Harvard community...
View ArticlePoet laureate to lead alumni at Harvard Commencement
U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith ’94 will serve as chief marshal of the alumni at Harvard’s 368th Commencement on May 30. “It’s a privilege to take part in this tradition,” she said. Smith said the...
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Members of the Harvard community talk about their favorite spots on campus
Video by Justin Saglio/Harvard Staff Harvard Forest David Foster Director, Harvard Forest The walk-up tower in the center of the Harvard Forest’s 4,000-acre laboratory and classroom [in Petersham]...
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Gandhi, De Los Santos, and Takjerad to deliver student addresses on...
A trio of students will share experiences, perspectives, and a little wisdom with 32,000 classmates, University officials, invited guests, family, and friends on Commencement morning, delivering...
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In Harvard Class Day speech, Gore decries attacks on facts, science, reason
Former Vice President Al Gore issued a stark warning Wednesday about “would-be autocrats” in a blistering call to arms to Harvard’s graduating seniors, decrying attacks on known facts, science, and...
View ArticleHarvard postpones its Commencement
Harvard President Larry Bacow announced Friday that the University’s 369th Commencement ceremony will be postponed indefinitely. The move is part of Harvard’s ongoing effort to stem the spread of the...
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Basketball star Jeremy Lin gets candid
Basketball star Jeremy Lin’s message on Wednesday was a little surprising. “You will always be more than your accomplishments,” he said. Unexpected advice from someone who has already achieved so much...
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President Bacow urges seniors to embrace the unexpected
Harvard seniors dressed in their black caps and gowns filed into Tercentenary Theatre on Tuesday afternoon to attend the Baccalaureate ceremony, a Commencement week ritual that includes scriptural...
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A call to public service
The Classes of 2020 and 2021 finally got their day under the trees of Tercentenary Theatre Sunday morning, having missed out on the pageantry and rituals of Commencement after the pandemic forced...
View ArticleHarvard sets date for Claudine Gay inauguration
Inauguration events for Claudine Gay, Harvard’s 30th president, will take place on Sept. 29 in Tercentenary Theatre. All members of the Harvard community are invited to attend the afternoon ceremony....
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President Bacow praises students in his final Baccalaureate address
President Larry Bacow saluted the strength and mettle of the Class of 2023, whose years at the College were marked by the far-reaching disruption of the pandemic, in his final Baccalaureate address...
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Alumni Day honored University grads — including one named Bacow
It was apparent to Mary Louise Kelly that people on the street were afraid to talk to her for fear of reprisals from Iran’s clerical rulers. The National Public Radio journalist had gone to Iran...
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President Claudine Gay welcomes Class of 2027
It was a day of firsts. Harvard President Claudine Gay welcomed the Class of 2027 and exhorted them to lean into the journey that brought them to the present moment and gear up for the transformations...
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