HGSE Commencement Celebrates the Class of 2025

Under cloudy skies and an enormous white tent in Radcliffe Yard, 774 graduates of the Harvard Graduate School of Education were honored on Thursday for their outstanding academic achievements and urged to go out into the world armed with the tools to shape its uncertain future.

Though rain threatened but never quite fell, Thursday’s Commencement ceremony offered thunderous applause and cheers for the Class of 2025 as they accepted new degrees and pointed advice about their agency to dream big, make an impact in their communities, and accept the next challenge in their lives with renewed purpose to change the world. 

“I have seen this class do hard things,” said Dean Nonie Lesaux. “There has no doubt been difficult moments during your time here, and you have not only survived, but thrived. The concepts you’ve mastered, research you’ve done, relationships you’ve built, the classroom debates — these are the experiences that will serve as the foundation of your agency for the work ahead.”

Lesaux framed her speech as a “final act of learning” for the Class of 2025, arguing that their agency to impact the education landscape is a “superpower” the world needs now more than ever. She urged the Ed School’s newest alumni to lean on each other and utilize their “collective agency” to help each other achieve change. 

“Look around you,” said Lesaux. “You are surrounded by people who believe in the power of education to change lives and to change the world. You are seated next to someone who cares deeply about learning, teaching, and innovation at the intersections of technology, art, health, and human development. And they are only a phone call or text message away.”

Lesaux highlighted the work of a number of faculty members, recent alums, and some among the Class of 2025 as examples of the impact the HGSE community has in the field, encouraging those assembled to continue that legacy of learning and innovation as they leave Appian Way. 

“You are the visionaries shaping policy, the entrepreneurs forging new paths, the scholars and innovators designing what comes next — bridging research and practice, and reimagining what’s possible for learners and communities alike,” said Lesaux. “You are the authors of education’s next chapter, stepping into a sector that urgently needs your leadership — and is counting on all of us — to guide it forward with purpose and resolve.”

Wednesday’s Convocation ceremony featured outstanding members of the Ed School community and their efforts in and outside of the classroom throughout the year. Senior Lecturer Kathryn Parker Boudett was named the 2025 Morningstar Family Teaching Award winner. Satyam Mishra was awarded the Phyllis Strimling Award, and class marshals, the school’s Equity and Inclusion Fellows, and the Intellectual Contribution Award winners from each master’s program were honored as well. 

Lecturer David Dockterman, last year’s Morningstar winner, was selected by students to deliver the faculty address. His speech highlighted the joy of learning new things that comes when you teach others. 

“Nothing pushes your comprehension like taking responsibility for someone else’s,” said Dockterman. “You really need to understand the domain.”

Dockterman shared personal examples of the unexpected ways he’s made connections through teaching, and the unpredictable ways those lessons can impact students.

“As a teacher I get so many chances to unknowingly influence a life, hopefully in a positive way. And I get to acknowledge how much I learn each year from students and colleagues. And, when I can, I get to thank a teacher, too,” said Dockterman. “It is a privilege to have the opportunity to intersect with people’s lives, even when you have no idea if and when an encounter will matter.”

The Class of 2025’s student speaker, C. Emmanuel Wright, offered a powerful lesson about his own family history and how it impacted his educational journey. Before applying to HGSE, he learned his grandfather was part of a landmark civil rights case, Griggs vs. Duke Power Co., that forever changed labor rights for people of color in America.

“That discovery lit up my world. It made my purpose undeniable,” said Wright. “It clarified why advocating for an inclusive, accessible education system is not just my passion — it’s my inheritance.”

Wright advocated for the Class of 2025 to be the “illumination” inside the proverbial bulb the HGSE framework provides its graduates to “make knowledge transformative.” 

“The spark within us was already there — HGSE didn’t give us that — but what this place did do was connect us to an electric current of ideas, people, and purpose, powerful enough to invoke the next great phenomenon,” said Wright. “May we each become our own light bulb — not just conductors of brilliance, but catalysts of change — grounded in truth, charged with vision, and divinely positioned to illuminate a new path forward, in whatever form that may take.”

Professor Catherine Snow delivered Wednesday’s keynote address. Dean Lesaux honored Snow, who will formally retire from teaching this summer, with a lengthy introduction that highlighted a career that included authoring or co-authoring 28 books and 342 scholarly articles. 

Lesaux also announced a scholarship fund established at HGSE by her brother, former U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow, will be formally renamed the Catherine Snow Ph.D. in Education, Language, and Literacy Fellowship in her honor. 

Snow’s speech addressed the challenges the new graduates will tackle in a difficult educational landscape while stressing that “the joy should be real” as they celebrate their own academic achievements during commencement week. 

“Today I offer the graduates not just my congratulations, but also my admiration,” said Snow in a speech that showcased her signature wit. “You are entering a less welcoming and more challenging world than I faced when I finished my graduate training in — listen carefully so you believe it — 1971.”

Snow’s speech highlighted the improvements and challenges she’s seen in her five decades at HGSE and a citizen of the world, noting that progress can happen amid setbacks and challenges if optimism and determination remain at the forefront of one’s efforts. 

“So go out into the world proud of your achievements and ready to exploit them, and prepared to defend this institution,” said Snow, reminding graduates a final time that the Ed School’s motto is “Learn to change the world.”

“Note that,” she continued. “Change the world. Not ‘change Massachusetts’ or ‘change the United States.’ You are here because we need you — your skills, your commitment, your willingness to speak up, the knowledge you have brought to us about your own corners of the world, and your courageous candor — if the world is going to change for the better.”

For full coverage of the week's events, visit our Commencement page.