The Class of 2026 graduated from Denison University on Saturday, May 16, with the toss of their mortarboards, a final exclamation mark on years of academic, artistic, and athletic achievements.
The Commencement was Denison’s 185th, with more than 600 students earning diplomas.
Student speaker Nancy Tran ’26, a data analytics and sustainability & environmental studies double major from Dong Nai Province, Vietnam, told of inviting her friends to visit her home in her sophomore year.
“The cultural differences, the surprises, and the discoveries my friends experienced as they saw my home took me back to my very first time arriving in the United States for college,” she said. “One evening, as we sat outside listening to cicadas and motorcycles pass by, my friend told me something simple yet unforgettable: ‘I see you better now.’
“That moment captures what Denison has meant to me, and I believe, to all of us,” she said. “Denison friendships are not only formed in classrooms, labs, or club meetings. They are formed across real differences, between athletes and artists, international and domestic students, first-generation students and those whose families have walked these paths before, across languages, identities, faiths, and ways of moving through the world. They are formed when we are willing to carry one another’s worlds.
“What Denison gave us is a way of approaching the world,” she said. “May we leave Denison not trying to be the smartest voices in the room — even though I know you are — but the ones willing to listen, to act, and to take responsibility for the world we are stepping into.”
Keynote speaker Eboo Patel, one of the nation’s most influential civic leaders and an advocate for building bridges across difference, urged graduates to chart their own course.
“You are not obligated to ride the wave that presents itself as inevitable,” he said. “You get to decide what matters. You get to decide how to organize your life around it.”
He spoke of the noble pursuit of ihsan, or “sacred excellence,” and he ended on a thought from the Roman philosopher, Seneca:
“While we live, while we are among human beings, let us cultivate our humanity.”
President Adam Weinberg shared practical advice with graduates searching for or preparing to start their first jobs.
“The best first job you can ever get is the one that’s available,” he said. “Your first job is merely your first job.”
Weinberg encouraged graduates to lean into their Denison connections.
“It’s a great alumni network. Use it. And use the Knowlton Center (for Career Exploration). We are here for you as you launch and make early career pivots.
“You are graduating out into an interconnected world that is changing quickly, where the opportunities and challenges are both deep and wide,” Weinberg said. “The world needs liberal arts graduates who can lean into complexity, who understand connections, who can lead from a wise and ethical core, and who are committed to the common good.
“Be those people. That is a Denison tradition.”
