VIDEO: Celebrating the Class of 2022
Families and friends. Words of wisdom. Diplomas and degrees. Cheers and confetti.
On a glorious day of pomp and accomplishment, the Babson College community celebrated the Class of 2022 during the undergraduate and graduate Commencement ceremonies Saturday on its Wellesley campus.
President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD delivered a message of gratitude to the graduates for enduring the unprecedented disruption and uncertainty of the past two years.
“In Babson’s 103-year history, there are many great stories of the College community rising to challenges,” Spinelli said. “Through wars and economic downturns, Babson has endured and advanced. Now, you are one of those stories of strength and resilience. Now, you are part of that long Babson history of rallying in the face of crisis.”
Alena Washington ’22, the undergraduate student speaker, acknowledged the historic nature of the graduating seniors. “It is important to celebrate us, the Class of 2022, as the only class at Babson to have lived through life at Babson before, during, and after the pandemic,” she said during her address.
“In Babson’s 103-year history, there are many great stories of the College community rising to challenges. … Now, you are part of that long Babson history of rallying in the face of crisis.”
President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD
Joanna Berwind H’22, the undergraduate Commencement speaker, announced a generous investment in Babson students and the College community. Berwind and Cheryl Yaffe Kiser, the executive director of the Institute for Social Innovation, will lead a co-creation effort to design the new Berwind Pathways Partnership, which will provide seed grant investments and Babson partnership to students, and which she will seed with $1 million. Berwind, co-chair of the board for the Berwind Corporation and director of the social impact organization Spring Point Partners LLC, also received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws degree.
Honorary Doctorate of Laws degrees also were presented to: Marcelo Claure H’22, chairman and CEO of Claure Capital who was the graduate Commencement speaker; Joyce Mandell H’22, vice chairman of Data Mail Inc.; and Ronald G. Weiner ’66, H’22, chairman and president of Perelson Weiner LLP, Certified Public Accountants.
Jhanna Fields MSEL’22, the graduate student speaker, recited an original poem she wrote, then closed by expressing a sentiment shared by most graduates. “It has been an honor to embark on this phase of the journey with each of you,” she said during her address. “We may part ways from this particular stop in the road, but we have joined a community that will take us farther than any of us could ever imagine!”
At the close of each ceremony, the graduates congregated at Park Manor Quad, where they posed for photos and toasted their accomplishments with a Babson-born beverage, Beaver Bite.
Watch the full undergraduate Commencement and graduate Commencement ceremonies. And, check out photos here:
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