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Class of 2024 encouraged to ‘reinvent the world’
See the full gallery of images from Commencement.
CNN Chief Legal Analyst Laura Coates told the 381 members of Connecticut College’s Class of 2024 to treat the world like “a blank slate.”
“You have a chance not just to build upon, but recreate and reinvent the world,” said Coates, the keynote speaker at Conn’s 106th Commencement on Sunday, May 19. “You have that power right now.”
A former prosecutor who now anchors the CNN show Laura Coates Live and hosts The Laura Coates Show on Sirius XM, Coates encouraged the graduates to use their voices and “ignore the imposter syndrome” and the people who will try to discourage them from making the changes they want to see in the world.
“You can be influenced by the energy in the room, or you can influence the energy in the room,” she said. “Have the bold audacity to say ‘I can, I should and I will.’ … You’ve got the brain, the heart, the courage to do what you believe in.”
Prior to the keynote address and in honor of her commitment to excellence in the law and communications, Coates was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters honoris causa by Interim President Leslie E. Wong, who also gave remarks.
Wong noted that Commencement marked his own “last academic experience,” as he will “re-retire” after a 51-year career in higher education when President-elect Andrea E. Chapdelaine tenure as Conn’s 12th president begins July 1.
“There’s no better way to end this formal part of my life of teaching and learning than being part of your community,” he told the graduates. “I wish you the best life can offer. Life is short, make the most of it.”
The graduates were also addressed by senior speaker Giana De La Cruz ’24, a psychology major, economics minor and scholar in the Public Health Pathway from Boston, Massachusetts.
De La Cruz applied the concept of the “analytic third” to the relationships her classmates formed with Connecticut College and with each other. “The analytic third is what we create when we make genuine contact with one another at a deeper emotional level of experience … It is a third entity—the space between self and other, subject and object, fantasy and reality,” she said.
“That feeling we all have right now, the nostalgia, happiness, bittersweetness—whatever it may be—that feeling is the analytic third,” she continued. “As we sit here on our beloved Tempel Green, our minds racing with pictures of the ghosts of our younger selves throughout these four years … we are leaving with more than just degrees. I don’t have to explain that—you all feel it.”
During the ceremony, the Oakes and Louise Ames Prize for most outstanding honors thesis was awarded to Ciara Barry McNamara ’24, a studio art and psychology double major and English minor from Brooklyn, New York. McNamara’s thesis, “The Spectacle of Consumption: I’m Lovin’ It,” explores hyper-consumerism, food production and ethics, and global capitalism and its environmental impacts in three collections of paintings, a collection of pen-and-ink drawings, a found-object sculpture and an installation, and it includes a written component.
The College awarded the Claire Gaudiani ’66 Prize for Excellence in the Senior Integrative Project to Sarah Jane Hall ’24, an environmental science major, geoscience minor and scholar in the Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment from Tualatin, Oregon. Her project, “GIS-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Marine Energy Site Selection: A Case Study Comparison between Puerto Rico and Hawaii,” applies a new method of site selection for marine renewable energy technologies that incorporates not only energy resource data, but also technical, socioeconomic and environmental data to facilitate more sustainable, equitable and just transitions to renewable energy around the world.
The 2024 Anna Lord Strauss Medal for outstanding work in public or community service was awarded to scholar-activist Jasity Mena ’24, an educational studies and sociology double major, human development minor and scholar in the Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy from New York, New York. Mena has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to civic engagement at Connecticut College, in New London and in her hometown of New York City, particularly in her efforts to empower youth of color.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, Brielle Blood ’24, Joshua Moylan ’24 and Katherine Rubel ’24 sang the “Alma Mater,” with musical accompaniment by the Connecticut College Jazz Quartet.
Commencement events began earlier in the weekend with the induction of 38 graduating seniors into Phi Beta Kappa, the national academic honor society; a multifaith Baccalaureate service; certificate ceremonies for senior scholars in the College’s centers for interdisciplinary scholarship; a CCAC stoling ceremony; and special gatherings for student-athletes, international graduates and Posse scholars.
Now graduates, members of the Class of 2024 are headed around the world to pursue a range of opportunities. Two received $40,000 Watson Fellowships to embark on a year of international exploration and discovery, while another received a Fulbright Fellowship to teach English in the Canary Islands. Members of the class have been accepted to graduate programs at Boston College, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Tufts, Vanderbilt, the University of St. Andrews and the University of Arizona. Others have accepted positions at companies and organizations including Citi, Unilever, IBM, Wayfair, Morningstar, M&T Bank, BlackRock, Huntington Theater Co., the Embassy of the Republic of Singapore and the Interstate Environmental Commission.
Class of 2024 By the Numbers
- 381 Bachelor of Arts degrees awarded
- 108 double majors
- 3 triple majors
- Graduates represent 27 states and 14 countries
- 56 are the first in their families to graduate from college
- 133 graduates earned Latin Honors (31 earned Summa Cum Laude; 40 earned Magna Cum Laude; 62 earned Cum Laude)
- 229 members of the class earned departmental honors
- 38 graduates were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the national academic honor society
381
Bachelor of Arts Degrees Awarded
108
Double Majors
3
Triple Majors
For full Commencement coverage, visit www.conncoll.edu/commencement.
May 19, 2024
