Carleton Commencement 2025

Carleton College graduated 528 students from the Class of 2025 during its 151st Commencement ceremony, held Saturday, June 14 on the Bald Spot.

Hundreds of friends and family members attended in order to applaud the latest Carleton graduates, with cheers from the crowd echoing across campus after each diploma was presented.

Michelle Mattson, professor of German and provost and vice president for academic affairs, read the names of the students as President Alison Byerly awarded the diplomas — and a handshake — to every member of the Class of 2025 in attendance.

An honorary doctoral degree was conferred during the ceremony to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson, who also gave the Commencement address.

Wilkerson’s address was impassioned and inspiring. She spoke of Carleton’s history of being at the forefront of change, and encouraged the Class of 2025 to use their experience to better the world.

“We have the power to act with honor and stand up when we see wrongdoing and injustice, anywhere in the world, both here and abroad,” she said. “To stand up and advocate on behalf of people who are oppressed and under attack. To extend help and benefit of the doubt to those who are marginalized and those who have been historically denied, as has this College, not just for those in need, but for the collective well-being of all of us.”

Wilkerson reflected on the Great Migration, a period of American history that she has researched extensively, as an example of the power people have when they work together.

“The people of the Great Migration had to seek political asylum within the borders of their own country. They were proxies for someone in almost all of our families who had to have done what they did just for us to be here in this moment, on this soil, at this time,” she said. “They couldn’t have seen the magnitude of their private decisions and had no grand title for it. Because they were right in the middle of it, they could not have seen how one person added to another, multiplied by millions, could be a liberation movement all its own. We each have the power to make history. You have the power to make history. If enough people are principled and purposed, and do the same thing at the same thing at the same time, they can change a region — they can change the world.”

“In a few minutes, you’ll walk across the stage to your future, celebrating in the same spot where you began in 2021,” Wilkerson said in the conclusion of her address. “As you all know, underneath this grass and soil on which we stand are the geothermal wells that generate renewable energy from deep within the earth to help warm and cool and sustain this campus. At this moment of celebration, those wells of life are sloshing deep beneath us. You started your journey right here in this verdant clearing, atop this underground source of energy, and are the only class in Carleton history to begin and to conclude your time on this campus in this sacred spot. You, the Class of 2025, were not meant to skim the surface; you are meant to go deep and reach far. Now you must carry that power and spread your life to the rest of the world.”

Wilkerson followed graduation reflections from Julia Dunn ’25, political science and international relations major with an Africana studies minor, and Annanya Sinha ’25, double major in psychology and gender, women’s, and sexuality studies.

Dunn focused her speech on unexpected journeys, speaking from her perspective as an international student from Portmore, Jamaica who knew very little about Carleton or the College’s Midwest landscape before she arrived on campus.

“The beauty of unexpected journeys is that in this life, we don’t have to travel them alone,” Dunn said. “There is always something new to discover, something different to learn, someone new to meet. As I’m sure you’ve all heard numerous times, Carls help Carls, and the community support that we provide one another makes all the difference as we embrace the uncertain… I hope that as we step beyond the Carleton bubble we’ve cultivated and enter the world, you will also think about the moments where a helping hand or kind gesture made this journey easier.”

Sinha followed Dunn and emphasized during their speech — which they titled, “A Love Letter to My Professors” — how Carleton courses have challenged their ego, pride, and existing knowledge, with talented professors teaching them the most valuable skill of all: how to think critically.

“It is not comfortable learning about the hard parts of history, or about a group of people or a theory that may not align with your existing ideological, moral, or religious framework. I didn’t like it at first… [but] I realized that my learning, and our learning, does not have to be comfortable,” Sinha said. “I want to leave you with what incredible professors at Carleton have instilled in me: Choose a narrative that isn’t about prioritizing your comfort. Shift your perspective — your way of thinking. And I say this because I know, as Carls, we will listen and engage. We will use our voice with nuance to respond to inflammatory rhetoric. We will be precise with the terminology we use. We’re trained for it. To think better… I hope you never stop learning.”

Dunn and Sinha’s focus on taking with them important life lessons from their time at Carleton is a theme of Commencement every year, as graduation marks a beginning as well as an end for each member of the Class of 2025. The newly-recognized alumni will soon head off to graduate schools, fellowships, and professional positions across the country and the globe, representing Carleton excellence everywhere they go.

President Byerly relayed in her welcoming remarks that although she doesn’t like to play favorites among class years, she does have a special bond with the Class of 2025, as she also began at Carleton in the fall of 2021.

“I have vivid memories of meeting many of you during move-in and orientation, when you and your families arrived, wearing masks, looking a bit nervous, but clearly eager to meet new people and learn about a place many of you were seeing for the very first time,” Byerly said. “I, too, was looking for clues about what Carleton would be like, and those early conversations with many of you were my first indicators of how much I would love Carleton students.”

Byerly emphasized how important it was to celebrate the diversity and breadth of the Class of 2025, as well as the entire Carleton student body, and all their different interests, talents, skills, backgrounds, experiences, and beliefs.

“Much of the current rhetoric about diversity asserts that when a college recruits students from historically underrepresented groups, it is offering them some unusual benefit,” Byerly said. “On the contrary, when we are successful in creating a diverse student body, we are offering an enormous benefit to all students, by creating the opportunity for everyone to learn alongside peers whose experiences may be very different from their own. At the same time, the primary reason for admitting any student to Carleton College is to give them the opportunity that they have earned to receive an outstanding liberal arts education.”

That outstanding education, Byerly added, as well as the irreplaceable faculty and student research that is such an integral part of it, cannot be taken for granted.

“Our nation and our world are in desperate need of citizens and leaders who can listen deeply to other voices, distinguish information from misinformation, connect complex ideas across disparate fields, grapple with nuance and ambiguity, cultivate understanding through creativity and art, and demonstrate leadership through their own ability to express, to inform, and to persuade,” Byerly said. “To those who would deny or undermine the importance of research to our nation and to the world, your experience at Carleton offers a compelling rebuttal. You know the difference between ideas that have been rigorously tested and debated, and ideas that are hastily promulgated and accepted without question. You understand the need to invest time, effort, and resources into finding long term solutions to problems, rather than settling for a popular or expedient approach. You recognize that respecting and collaborating with others will always lead to better outcomes than imposing a singular perspective. For this, you have your education to thank. And for your future contributions as citizens and leaders, the world will have both you, and your liberal arts education, to thank.”

After this year’s Commencement drew to a close with the valedictory from College Chaplain Schuyler Vogel ’07 and a rousing chorus of “Carleton, Our Alma Mater,” the members of the Class of 2025 filed out of their seats to congregate with their families, professors, friends, and others on the Bald Spot, happy to spend one last afternoon lounging with a picnic lunch before leaving campus for the first time as Carleton alumni.

The 2025 Commencement ceremony was live streamed and recorded. The full video will be posted on the Commencement website.

Erica Helgerud ’20 is the news and social media manager and Rachel Everett ’18 is the internal communications manager for Carleton College.