Main Lines
Celebrating the Class of 2020 and how we emerge from this time, building a world that is a better and far more worthy one for all of us.” President Wendy Raymond, after conferring the degrees (and offering an appropriately long pause so that friends and family members at home gatherings could cheer the graduates), left the Class of 2020 with a poem by Native American poet Joy Harjo titled “Remember”: Remember you are all people and all people are you. Remember you are this universe and this universe is you. Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
—E. L.
President Wendy Raymond confers the degrees during the celebration of the Class of 2020.
T
here were so many things the Haverford community missed about not being on campus in the final weeks of the semester, but the biggest one of all was Commencement. While our seniors did not get to experience their hard-earned moment of pomp and circumstance in front of a crowd in Alumni Field House, the College honored the achievements of our newest graduates in an online celebration on May 30. In advance of the event, which was live on Zoom and YouTube, the College sent out boxes to Class of 2020 members with diplomas, caps, and tassels. In addition, a full commencement program, posted online, listed all of the graduates and their senior thesis titles by major, along with College, departmental, and other honors and awards. Those offering remarks at the online event included student speaker Annie Connolly-Sporing ’20, and staff speaker Margaret Schaus, Lutnick Library lead research and instruction librarian. “In all of our time with you, we’ve been inspired by your energy, wide-ranging interests, smart insights, and generosity,” said Schaus, who challenged the graduates: “Let’s take our experience of shared community and live it everyday, wherever we go.” In her remarks, Associate Professor of Psychology Shuwen Wang—who noted that the Class of 2020 was the first in Haverford history to include graduates with a degree in environmental studies—said she and her fellow faculty are “so deeply grateful to have students like you who display the very best of what this community has always aspired to be” and deeply admire “your courage in pressing on with your education despite the difficulty of this time.” “Do not underestimate your potency in impacting this world,” Wang said. “You will help how we shape and navigate, 16
Haverford Magazine
To watch a video of the celebration (with captions in English, Spanish, and Mandarin), read the program, view a timeline of the Class of 2020’s four years at Haverford, and more, go to: hav.to/celebrate20. Look for a date to be announced for an in-person commencement for the class tentatively scheduled for spring 2021.
AS PART OF THE VIRTUAL EVENT, the College invited family, friends, faculty, and staff to record short videos celebrating members of the Class of 2020. Nearly 300 of them were posted, and you can watch them at hav.to/celebrate20. In his video, Visiting Assistant Professor of English Thomas Devaney read a poem he’d written for the occasion. Here’s an excerpt:
I believe in your intelligence I believe in your sense of the fantastical I believe in your deep belief for social justice I believe in your capacity to be hilarious I believe in your inner light (because, yeah, I’ve seen it) I believe in your struggle to face all that is scary I believe in the necessity to name the things that are scary. It’s important to name it all, but it’s only where we start as we work towards wholeness, and work to heal. And as we strive to be the most human. Right now, we are all over the country and all over the world. Distance is one thing, but separation is another. We are distant, but we are not separate. There are many lines in and many lines out of the community and place that is Haverford College. Your friendships and bonds with one another, and your connections and relationship are so rich. So real. So truly amazing. Our points of contact do remain; but I also believe that the most meaningful meeting place is in our hearts. But right now, I am only thinking about right now. And if I want to know about the future, all I need to do is to think of you. All I have to do is to look at you.
