[MUSIC]
[CHEERING]
RANDALL KENNEDY: Insistence upon academic freedom.
Facilitation of respectful deliberation. Joy in academic discovery.
Delight in artistic brilliance.
A determination to do better tomorrow than we did today.
These are the representative features of the Princeton
that inspires us, the Princeton we admire,
the Princeton we love, the Princeton in whose honor
we ought be ambassadors for higher education.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC]
CHRISTOPHER L. EISGRUBER: 2016, enjoy Class Day. Congratulations!
JODI PICOULT: Look up and see where else
you can climb.
There will no doubt be someone, or something in your way - well, good.
Embrace the obstacles.
The person who gets where he wants easily may not break a sweat -
but he also will not have a story that inspires change, or that inspires others.
Go on, Class of 2016. Make the rest of us proud.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC]
SANJEEV KULKARNI: The process of mastering
a disclipline and contributing something new to a body
of knowledge with a deep focus is in fact broadening and liberating.
It enables you to pursue new directions, new fields, or entirely new endeavors
with the abilities and confidence not just to succeed but
to excel and to lead.
CAMERON PLATT: Class of 2016, thank you
for four years of remarkable conversation.
As you go out of FitzRandolph Gate, hopefully for the first time,
tell your stories, listen to the stories of others,
and mind the many ways - often unexpected -
in which they speak to each other.
CHRISTOPHER L. EISGRUBER: The world that awaits you
will sometimes be frustrating and difficult, but it is a world that needs
your talents, your citizenship and your engagement.
You have shared friendships, rivalries, highs and lows,
cooperation, competition and conflict.
For most of you, your enduring connections to one another
and to this University will be one of the most important legacies
of your time here.
My colleagues and I here on stage look forward to cheering you on
as you address these and other challenges.
We hope that all of you will return often to Old Nassau and update
us on your progress.
We are proud of you, we will miss you,
and we eagerly anticipate seeing what you will achieve, because
all of you are now, and forever shall be part of Princeton's
Great Class of 2016! Congratulations and best wishes!
[CHEERING]