(graduates cheer)
- My friends, please join me in welcoming
the President of the University of Pennsylvania,
Wendell Pritchett.
(graduates applaud) (graduates cheer)
- Hello, class of 2022!
(graduates applaud) (graduates cheer)
Oh, come on.
There's this poor we can do better than that.
Hello, Class of 2022!
(graduates applaud) (graduates cheer)
All right!
That's more like it.
All right.
We gather here today to celebrate your many,
many, many achievements.
We also mark the remarkable years,
unprecedented even, that U.S. Penn have been.
These historic times have required much of all of you.
You have experienced more and endured more
than many classes who came before.
Yet, to our everlasting pride,
you have more than met the challenge,
you evolved, you thrived.
You could even say you've developed
special adaptations that now set you apart.
Superpowers, if you will.
Among them, your class exhibits
heightened resilience and responsiveness,
exceptional optimism, tempered by pragmatism,
courageous compassion, and selflessness.
Also, super strength, spidey senses?
Amazing web-slinging abilities?
Eh, all right, maybe you haven't evolved "those" powers,
but that would be pretty awesome.
I argue as well that you now possess even stronger skills
for navigating the unfamiliar,
the unexpected, and the uncertain.
You see the world, its many countless challenges,
and unmapped possibilities with near superhuman keenness.
Where others see a roadblock, you discern a path forward.
Now, because this is Penn,
I will not simply claim all of these fantastic things
as true without evidence.
Like the scholars and scientists we are,
we will put my Tate claims to the test.
One last test before you graduate
and we're gonna do it right now.
I promise it will be quick.
All right, so here's some instructions.
Here's how your test will go.
I will show you a picture of a landmark at Penn,
something iconic.
And I want you to guess what it is, but there's a catch.
The iconic image will be presented
in some way that is unfamiliar.
It will be an extreme close-up or an unusual angle,
so I want you to think about it then shout out your answer.
Once I hear some crowd consensus,
I'll reveal the correct answer.
All right, everybody ready?
Ready? (graduates cheer)
All right. Let your last test begin!
Can I have the first image please?
(graduates react)
Wow! Man! Impressive!
All right, let's see what it is.
(graduates applaud) (graduates cheer)
Good work! Good work!
All right. The button is correct.
All right, so we're warm here. Very warm.
All right, so let's get this party started.
All right, next image please.
(graduates responding)
Ah, I'm hearing a lot of answers to this one.
I'm hearing a lot of answers to this one.
All right. It's the love statue.
Let's show everybody.
That was a tough one. That was a tough one.
All right, let's go on to round three.
(graduates responding)
Oh no, I'm hearing a couple of them.
All right. Let's see it.
Good work. Good work.
All right. I'm not surprised you're rocking this test.
All right, so next one.
What is it? What is it?
All right. Let's see what it is.
It is, "We are Penn Quakers".
All right.
So as President, I officially declare
that you all passed with flying colors.
You also proved my hypothesis beautifully.
Your shared experience as a class has been forged
in the crucible of global change,
enormous and at times quite scary.
This experience has granted your class certain gifts.
Among them, your advanced ability
to roll with the challenges,
to navigate extreme uncertainty with resilient creativity.
That gift will continue to serve you well
all of your lives, which is a very good thing
because the world needs your unique abilities,
more urgently than ever.
Fundamental threats to democratic norms
and values, pandemics, and climate change,
the rip currents of war.
You don't need me to tell you that life
and the world won't be getting any simpler,
or any more certain anytime soon.
So 30 years ago, the late and forever great,
Maya Angelou penned an essay
about this very thing.
She observed that, "For all our assumptions,
we actually know nothing certain about how our day will go.
We cannot know for sure what each day may bring."
Who after all, could possibly have predicted
the twists and turns of the last two years?
I now quote Angela's essay.
"Life is pure adventure," she wrote.
"And the sooner we realize that,
the quicker we will be able to treat life as art,
to bring all our energies to each encounter,
to remain flexible, enough to notice and admit
when what we expected to happen, did not happen.
We need to remember that we are created creative
and can invent new scenarios
as frequently as they are needed."
I wanna linger for just a moment
on that final wonderful sentence,
"We are created creative and can invent
new scenarios as frequently as they are needed."
Angelou rightly observes that, "While all
of us have the capacity for such creativity,
it does not simply bubble up by default,
especially amid adversity,
there is no autopilot for ingenuity,
no cruise control for craft".
When a calamity like COVID happens, we must be invented.
How well your class has proven it.
That fateful spring of your sophomore year
when Penn decided to evacuate campus to save lives,
you turned your own lives upside down
to make the plan reality.
You adapted to wholly online learning.
You gave of yourselves to care for others.
You masked up, marched for black lives matter,
got out to vote, got vaccinated, and boosted.
All of this you did while sacrificing special milestones
and moments of joy on top of acing
your studies and extracurriculars, I might add.
You invented new scenarios as needed
and you made it work.
Writing three decades ago,
Maya Angelou couldn't possibly have predicted any
other things that you have seen.
Yet, with the example that you have set
and your achievements we now celebrate,
I believe she just could have easily had been peering
into the future and writing about you.
10 years, 25, 50 years from now,
you will reunite for milestones.
You will gather for weddings and anniversaries,
and of course, Penn alumni weekends.
At each one, you will swap stories
about living through an era-defining moment
of enormous adversity and rising to the challenge.
You will take pride in those memories.
You will reminisce.
And I bet you will still, still, still be tired of Zoom.
Speaking of reminiscing,
when I was preparing to celebrate you today,
I did a little digging.
I wanted to recall something that happened way back
in 2018 at the beginning of the fall semester.
That was a distant time which according
to the official COVID timeline of events occurred,
roughly, a hundred years ago.
So I took a look at the convocation ceremony
for the class of 2022.
And I was reminded that President Gutmann
called you the "once-in-a-millennium class".
(graduates applaud) (graduates cheer)
Yup.
Now, she has been proven even more right than she knew,
but looking back,
I also recall that you chose a class nickname.
Do you remember what it was?
Anybody remember what it was?
"22 together, 22 together".
If our former president has been proven
more right than she knew,
then all of you have proven downright prophetic.
This class will be forever woven together
more tightly than most.
You prove that you are indeed, created creative
and you have the amazing track record to back it up.
In this and countless other ways,
you have earned our everlasting respect
and deserve our longest and loudest applause.
So I ask the families here today to stand with me now.
I ask our trustees, alumni, faculty, staff, and friends,
please join me, please join me
in showing our boundless affection
and amazing pride for the great class of 2022!
(staff claps)
(graduates applaud)
Thank you and congratulations!