NYU Celebrates 191st Commencement at Yankee Stadium
NYU President Linda G. Mills and Board of Trustees Chair Evan R. Chesler today officiated at NYU’s 191th Commencement at Yankee Stadium. More than 14,000 students received undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees as an audience of 26,000-plus family, friends, alumni, faculty, and other NYU community braved a light rain to be in attendance.
Martha Minow—300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard University and former dean of Harvard Law School, as well as a celebrated legal scholar and co-chair of the access to justice project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and key facilitator of Imagine Coexistence, a U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees program that promoted peace and development in societies ravaged by war and conflict —received a Doctor of Laws degree honoris causa. She delivered remarks on behalf of the honorary degree recipients.
Noting that in 2024, one of the few beliefs Americans have in common is just how divided we are as a nation, Minow said, “my hope is that we can learn from patterns of division and polarization to anticipate backlash, to mobilize transformative practices along with cultural creativity—as [NYU Law Professor] Bryan Stevenson has done by building the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the related museum and sculpture park in Montgomery, Alabama. How can we build durable activities and institutions to advance justice and to strengthen fair and peaceful dealing despite ongoing disagreements? By durable, I do not mean unchanging. To the contrary, durable work addressing what is unfair must anticipate disrepair, conflict, and our human frailties.”
President Mills singled out the work of the three women being honored with honorary degrees—the first all-women slate of honorary recipients in the University’s history—as models of transformational change, telling the graduates, “as we appreciate the work of our three honorary degree candidates, who hail from three distinct disciplines —business, science, and law—from three unique countries—Tunisia, Hungary, and the United States, we can see how each is committed to transforming millions of lives through their peace efforts and research discoveries. Together, they are doing the unrelenting work required to create a better planet. In their differences, they uncover novel ways of thinking, making the connections we all so desperately need to build.”
This year’s other recipients of honorary doctorates were:
Ouided Bouchamaoui—an international business leader and advocate for women’s empowerment; a professor of practice of diplomacy and conflict resolution at NYU Abu Dhabi; and a central figure in the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, which was awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for its role in creating pluralistic democracy in Tunisia. She received a Doctor of Humane Letters degree honoris causa.
Katalin Karikó—co-winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her contributions to the development of the mRNA technology used in the BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to prevent COVID-19 infection; professor at the University of Szeged (Hungary) and adjunct professor of neurosurgery at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania; and the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Japan Prize, the Horwitz Prize, the Ross Prize in Molecular Medicine, among others. She received a Doctor of Science degree honoris causa.
The student speaker at the 2024 Commencement Exercises was Samuel Fung Lik Yan, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the Gallatin School of Individualized Studies, with a special concentration in The Playful Design of Learning, which focuses on how designed experiences engage and encourage people, regardless of age, to thrive as learners.
“I am indebted to the countless people who, like [my instructor], saw my limitations but didn’t reject me, and journeyed with me instead,” said Yan. “People who, regardless of whether they agreed with me, would sit and listen to my insane rambling as I tried to understand the world and its complexity, and shared their perspectives, their criticisms, so that we could think—and learn—together. It is the brilliant diversity of their voices that gives me hope that we can build a better tomorrow. Because individually, we are too limited to handle the world’s problems. But—if we can learn from one another—then we have unlimited potential.”
In keeping with NYU tradition, Commencement included the Ceremony of the Torch. The University Torch—designed and fashioned by Tiffany and Co. in sterling silver and donated to the University in 1911—was passed from a senior member of the faculty—Anthony J. Grieco, a professor of medicine and the associate dean for alumni relations and academic events at the Grossman School of Medicine—to the youngest undergraduate degree recipient in the Class of 2024—Paris Bustrum, a 19-year-old who received a BA from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
The 191th Commencement featured a special performance from the hit show Wicked, which paid tribute both to the friendship and resilience of the Class of 2024, as well as recognizing the NYU community’s enduring mark on the show currently celebrating its 20th anniversary. The performance featured Brittney Johnson (TSOA ’12), an accomplished actress and singer who made history as the first Black woman to play the role of Glinda in Wicked on Broadway; Johnson also starred in Les Misérables, Motown The Musical, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Sunset Boulevard, and Kristin Chenoweth: For the Girls. The performance was introduced by Susan Hilferty, an arts professor and former chair of the Department of Design for Stage & Film at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Hilferty created Tony Award-winning costumes for Wicked. Her other Broadway credits include Spring Awakening, Parade, Funny Girl, and Into the Woods, among many others.