Harvard Extension School's Inaugural Convocation

Today is a celebration of you. We're here to celebrate your admission as degree candidates to one of the finest continuing education programs in the entire world. You've proved that you can do the work of this great institution, most of you while working full-time. You have earned your way in and I want to applaud you. If you're a degree candidate, that's a huge thing to get accepted into the university. So, you know, we need to celebrate that. So that was the reason why we decided that a convocation would be a great idea. A chance for international students and students all over the country to come together and have that one defining moment when you're entering into the space. Welcome to the Memorial Church. May you be inspired by this space just as we are inspired by all of you. I can't imagine a more apt beginning to this occasion, the first ever convocation for the Harvard Extension School than to be surrounded by such tradition and history. It was so amazing to be at Memorial Church hearing from all the amazing speakers, just having so much faith in us as Extension students. Each and every one of you has the power, if you choose to take yourself seriously, to change the course of history. To really have the opportunity to see other Extension students in person and all be in one place together was really, really special. I feel truly a part of the Harvard community. This is your community. You have earned the opportunity to share in all that Harvard has to offer. You belong here and I salute you. Being part of the community is important. It's important for you to still meet the people that you see online and I think make those connections that would be your friends, perhaps your colleagues, people you can interact with throughout your entire life. It's been really wonderful being able to be here on campus because it changed the experience. It really made it more real for me. Every day kind of feels like a dream like when I'm here. It's hard to explain but it's kind of like it hasn't set in with me quite yet. I'm actually here. You really feel that you're walking with all the other graduate students and college students that are part of this university. It made me realize that there are other people out there that are like me that are pursuing their degree. They're in their same sort of station in life. I found myself here, an immigrant, a married woman, an adult who had to have a job and a student who had to attend classes at night to earn my degree. Being retired military is something I didn't think was possible. One of my sailors just walked up to me one day said, hey I did some research you're gonna go to school with me. I know by the way we're going to Harvard. It's like yeah whatever and I talked to my kids they're like dad you always tell us to do to go for our dreams and you should do this and like one of the speakers said today why not and that's what I asked myself like okay why not so I went for it. I recognized I had a chance to get into Harvard. It took me eight courses to get the grade level I needed to get in here. That's how important I thought it was and I'm about to graduate in May. This is the piece of Harvard that takes Harvard from the great university it is today to the great university in the 21st century. I had some feelings inside me and I'm now more looking forward to graduation next year. After I left convocation my chest grew three inches bigger. I'm telling you I think the thing for me that made it feel so awesome was to be here and to hear the speeches. What you're doing is special and I ask you to share it with your community of fellow students and alumni who are here and are supporting you through every step of your journey. So I would like to ask all of our degree candidates to please stand. I want to ask you to do something. I want you to use your education to foster change in the world. It really matters right now. I want you to engage your peers and challenge us with new ways of thinking. I want you to use this community to form bonds that will last a lifetime and I want you to tell the world how proud you are of being at Harvard Extension School because I'm proud of you and I look forward so much to conferring your degrees alongside President Bacow on commencement day.