91��Ƶ

“The problems of tomorrow will not be solved by the thinking of the past,” President Krislov said during his Commencement address on Monday, May 15. “They will be solved by new people, with new ideas, and new ways of doing things. They will be solved by a new generation that is creative and resourceful and adaptive. Your generation was knocked down, and then you stood right back up. You know how to think on your feet, how to adjust on the fly, how to make the best of any situation. You know how to get to a goal like graduation, even through a once-in-a-century disruption.”

Students celebrating this exciting achievement were a mix of undergraduate, graduate, law, and doctoral students, spanning a variety of disciplines and future careers, such as nurses and physician assistants, cybersecurity experts, lawyers, accountants, teachers, performers, and much more.

“Be courageous. That means trust yourself. Don’t sell yourself short. Don’t settle for work that you don’t believe in. Don’t assume that you can’t make a difference." —US Senator Elizabeth Warren

Speaking to roughly 15,000 people including 3,700 graduates at in Queens, alumnus spoke of his path from a student finding his way in lower Manhattan to a celebrated fashion designer and founder of the global label Telfar.

In addition, the Elisabeth Haub School of Law, which recently earned the No. 1 ranking for Environmental Law by U.S. News & World Report, graduated 241 students, its largest class in the past five years.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren and Harvard Law Professor and legal historian Bruce H. Mann both received honorary degrees during that ceremony. Senator Warren shared stories of her early years out of law school and threaded her speech with a simple yet powerful message.

“Be courageous,” Warren said. “That means trust yourself. Don’t sell yourself short. Don’t settle for work that you don’t believe in. Don’t assume that you can’t make a difference."

91��Ƶ Trustee and alumnus Ivan G. Seidenberg ’81, retired chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications, addressed graduates of 91��Ƶ’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems to mark the school’s 40th anniversary. 91��Ƶ also awarded Aldrin Enis, president of One Hundred Black Men of New York, with its Opportunitas in Action Award.

The day was highlighted by the conferral of over 4,000 degrees including 1,735 masters’, which is the largest number in over five years, and roughly 300 students receiving dual degrees.