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Commencement 2025

The Class of 2025 displays grit and perseverance

By Bates College

May 30^th, 2025

Shape and Defend

From Commencement speaker Angela Duckworth’s striking call to “shape your situation before it shapes you” to President Garry W. Jenkins’ charge to lead lives of purpose and be staunch defenders of higher education, the messages of the 159th Bates Commencement on May 25, 2025, underscored the strength of thoughtful leadership, human connection, and the enduring value of a Bates liberal arts education.

This year’s honorary degree recipients — psychologist and Grit author Duckworth, trailblazing civil rights lawyer Mary Bonauto, documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson, and statesman Deval Patrick — embodied the very ideals that the graduates were encouraged to uphold in their lives as Bates alumni.

This year’s graduation was one of the chilliest in memory; few could remember audience members wrapping themselves in fleece blankets.

As Bates President Garry W. Jenkins stepped to the lectern to begin the 159th Commencement, the 504 members of the Bates Class of 2025 seated before him, the temperature stood at 56 degrees. A northwest breeze and clouds brought the real-feel down a few degrees. But as Benjamin Mays, Class of 1920, famously said about his time at Bates, “The weather was cold but the hearts at Bates were warm.” And so began an uplifting ceremony in the cozy confines of the Historic Quad.

‘I don’t want to forget them’

The first seniors to arrive on Alumni Walk, the gathering spot for the academic procession, were these seniors, joined by other friends, who took lots of group photos.

When asked why they all arrived so early, Hayden Eckblom ’25 (right), an earth and climate sciences major from Tolland, Conn., answered: “These are the best friends I’ve had in my life. I don’t want to forget them.”

Setting the table

Three hours before the start of Commencement, just after 7 in the morning, the job at hand is to ensure that the table is properly set, and that task goes to Facility Services workers like Franky Urueta.

And first to arrive, before 7 a.m., was Cherylann Nagley, "aunt" to graduate Hope Seketa ’25 of East Amherst, N.Y. Nagley has been friends with Hope's mother, Tracey Seketa, for 30 years.

A family tradition

Mathematics major Jamil Mouehla ’25 of Harrington Park, N.J., wears these Ferragamo loafers on Commencement morning with pride — not for their price, but for their significance.

His older brother, who exemplified the family tradition of hard work, passed them along to his younger brother in recognition of Jamil’s efforts. “These shoes were not bought but earned,” Jamil says. “And I can walk in these shoes as my brother did.”

Made with love

“My mom made these lei for me,” said Suhana Liedtke ’25, a religious studies major from Waimanalo, Hawaii.

‘Great place with great people’

“You definitely have to explore being friends with everybody you meet. It’s a great place with great people, and they can help you go a long way.”

— Ben Miller ’25, a psychology major from Scarsdale, N.Y., offering advice to the first-year Bates Class of 2029 on what they should explore when they arrive in August.

‘We are certain about you’

“Even while I hold fast to the enduring power of education to shape lives and propel the world forward, I still feel plenty of uncertainty, too. But I am certain about you. I am certain about our Bates Class of 2025. I am certain you are ready for the future.”

— Bates President Garry W. Jenkins, in his Commencement welcome, offering a message of faith in the graduates’ readiness to face the world.

Sam Thornburg '25 (left) of Asheville, N.C., receives help with his mortarboard from Luke Heafey '25 of San Francisco.

Kim Miller hugs her son Ben Miller '25 (center) of Scarsdale, N.Y., and other "son" Denim Evans '25 of Baltimore.

The Honorands

President Garry W. Jenkins (center) poses with the 2025 honorary degree recipients, from left, Deval Patrick, Mary Bonauto, Commencement speaker Angela Duckworth, and Stanley Nelson.

Bonauto is a lawyer and activist for LGBTQ+ rights who successfully argued Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 before the Supreme Court.

Duckworth is a psychologist, leading voice in the study of human behavior, and author of The New York Times bestseller Grit.

Stanley Nelson is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who tells the dynamic stories of Black Americans.

Deval Patrick is the former governor of Massachusetts and former U.S. assistant attorney general for the civil rights division.

‘The world needs you’

“The world needs Bates graduates. The world needs you. We need you to bring the tools, the talents you have acquired during your time on this campus for lives of leadership and purpose, ameliorating uncertainty, fueling prosperity and innovation, standing up for what’s [right], caring for those around you.”

— Bates President Garry W. Jenkins, in his Commencement welcome, emphasizing the value of a liberal arts education and calling on graduates to meet a world filled with uncertainty by leaning into their Bates-honed values and skills.

‘Ambassadors for higher education’

“Tell the story of how and why Bates matters. Stand up for the positive difference that we, small liberal arts colleges and higher education more broadly, make in communities, in professions, in human advances through research and progress in a wide range of fields.”

— Bates President Garry W. Jenkins, in his Commencement welcome, offering a stirring defense of the liberal arts, asking the Bates community to champion the role of higher education in ensuring a healthy democracy.

A Bird's Eye View

Seniors fill the seats on the Historic Quad during the academic procession for the 159th Bates Commencement on May 25, 2025. (Theophil Syslo/Bates College)

‘To be home for others’

“We adjusted to each new reality, individually reminding ourselves of the strengths we carry to do this, and relied on our campus community to uplift us, just by being there and existing. In the context of the birch and the maple, we found ways to be home for others, and grow stronger as individuals and within this community.”

— Senior speaker Aanika Patel ’25, an environmental studies major from Needham, Mass., using a metaphor of species’ coexistence, like a maple and birch tree side by side in the forest, to pay tribute to the adaptability and mutual support that uplifted the Class of 2025 at Bates.

‘Willpower is overrated’

“It may surprise you, because it definitely surprised me: willpower is overrated. Achieving what you want out of life has very little to do with forcing yourself to act one way or another. In fact, successful people rarely rely on inner fortitude to resist temptations in the heat of the moment. Instead, they avoid them altogether.”

— Commencement speaker Angela Duckworth, sharing surprising insights from her psychology research. Duckworth challenged the idea that grit means pushing harder; instead, she argued for making smarter environmental choices.

‘How we spend our lives’

“When you make your choices, remember what the writer Annie Dillard said: ‘How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.’”

— Commencement speaker Angela Duckworth, closing her address by inviting the Class of 2025 to be intentional with their time, quoting Dillard to underscore the stakes of daily choices.

‘A gift beyond measure’

“With clarity and conviction, prudence and persistence, you have helped widen the circle of belonging, reminding us all why this matters in a democratic society. Your gift to us is nothing less than our choices and our freedoms — truly a gift beyond measure.”

— Honorary degree conferral for Mary Bonauto, delivered by President Garry W. Jenkins, honored the scale of Bonauto’s impact: constitutional equality for millions of Americans.

‘Authenticity and artistic freedom’

“For the voices and for the stories; for bearing witness and bringing the focus as well as the funk; for reminding us what authenticity and artistic freedom truly mean and why they truly matter.”

— Honorary degree conferral for Stanley Nelson, delivered by President Garry W. Jenkins, saluting Nelson’s decades of documentary film storytelling of Black history and American struggle and triumph.

‘Strengthening the power of community’

“For all the ways that you have aimed high and inspired others to do the same, for strengthening the power of community, for a remarkable career of leadership and service.”

— Honorary degree conferral for Deval Patrick, delivered by President Garry W. Jenkins, who noted that Patrick had included in his memoir a quote by Benjamin Mays, Class of 1920: “Not failure, but low aim, is a sin.”

‘Bobcat in the wild’

“Throughout the twists and turns of your professional and personal journey, you can always connect with a Bobcat in the wild.”

— Leah Elsmore ’12, president of the Bates Alumni Association, welcoming the Class of 2025 into the alumni community, describing the global Bates network as a source of opportunity, friendship, and lifelong connection.

‘Take root and flower’

“Through the work of many devoted teachers, mentors, and loved ones, we have reached a threshold, a moment that marks a transition from growing and storing to sowing and tending. May what you have learned at Bates take root and flower in minute and majestic ways to nourish others, nurse the wounded earth, and nurture human community.”

— The Rev. Raymond Clothier of the Multifaith Chaplaincy, offering a final blessing to the Class of 2025, sending them forth to cultivate the goodwill from their Bates years to serve and support others, the planet, and the shared human spirit.

‘What mindfulness looks like in the digital age’

“So graduates, as you leave the Quad today with your hard-earned diplomas, walking for one last time beneath the trees that have witnessed generations of Batesies before you, I urge you to make a humble yet powerful vow: Commit to situation modification, because this is what mindfulness looks like in the digital age: not willpower, but the wisdom to shape the situations that shape you.”

— Commencement speaker Angela Duckworth’s final piece of advice to the 504 members of the Class of 2025, to shape your situation before it shapes you.

Footnotes

Produced by the Bates Communications and Marketing Office, with photography by Phyllis Graber Jensen, drone photography by Theophil Syslo, and text by Jay Burns

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FootNotes

Produced by the Bates Communications and Marketing Office, with photography by Phyllis Graber Jensen, drone photography by Theophil Syslo, and text by Jay Burns