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SPEAKER 1: Good evening, everyone. Whether you're here in person or joining us virtually, I'm thrilled to extend a warm welcome to all of our graduates, families, friends, and esteemed faculty. Tonight marks a significant milestone in the journey of all of these graduates, and it's an honor to come together to celebrate their achievements.
Before we begin our formal program, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the emergency exits, which are located behind the stage, behind the graduates where you entered the arena. And for those who are seated in the higher bleachers, please note the exits at both ends of the upper mezzanine.
In the event of an emergency or fire alarm, please proceed quickly and calmly to the nearest emergency exit, keeping in mind it may be behind you. We also ask to make sure that we keep the aisles clear, especially when students are coming across the stage. That would help with the flow. So appreciate that.
To kick off this evening's program with a vibrant and unforgettable performance, let's give a warm welcome to Ithaca's very own powerhouse, the Fall Creek Brass Band.
[APPLAUSE]
[FALL CREEK BRASS BAND, "I'LL FLY AWAY"]
SPEAKER 2: (SINGING) Some glad morning when this life is over, I'll fly away. To the home on God's celestial shore, I'll fly away.
Oh I'll fly away, oh, Glory, I'll fly away. When I die, Hallelujah by and by, I'll fly away.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
All right. Let's this party started. Let's get this party started. Let's get this party started right now. Let's get this party started. Let's get this party started. Let's get this party started right now.
Let's get this party started. Let's get this party started. Let's get this party started right now. Let's get this party started. Let's get this party started. Let's get this party started right now.
Down by the riverside, down by the riverside, down by riverside. I'm gonna to lay down my burdens down by the riverside. Going to study war no more
I ain't gonna study war no more. I ain't gonna study war no more. I ain't gonna study war no more. Ain't gonna study war no more. I ain't gonna study war no more. Study war no more.
[APPLAUSE]
LINDA NICHOLSON: Thank you, Fall Creek Brass Band. Yeah, let's get this party started.
So members of the Biological Sciences class of 2024, families, friends, faculty, and staff, I extend my warmest welcome. I'm Linda Nicholson, the Faculty Director of Undergraduate Biology and Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics.
Yay. That was a mouthful.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you so much for being here to celebrate this exciting milestone. Graduates, I'd like to take a moment to honor what you have achieved, especially in your first year at Cornell.
This is not about grades. It's about inner strength, empathy, believing in yourself, and building community. Most of you arrived in the fall of 2020 to a campus on lockdown, due to the pandemic.
You and your families placed enormous trust in Cornell's decision to bring students back to campus when so many other colleges and universities were fully remote. This decision was based on data-driven predictions that it would be safer for everyone, including the city of Ithaca and surrounding communities to be in person with mandatory and frequent testing. Frequent is an underestimate, right?
Your first year experience was not normal by any stretch of the imagination, as you followed the rules that were imposed to keep everyone safe. What each other looked like must have been such a mystery, as you wore your masks and socially distanced, and figured out how to navigate Cornell.
Your first Slope Day was virtual. I don't even know what that means. You were called to make many sacrifices, and those sacrifices literally saved lives. Thank you.
And you gained something incredibly important from this experience. You proved that you have the strength, resilience, adaptability, empathy, and compassion necessary to cooperate as part of a community for the good of the whole and beyond to protect people you don't even know.
And you witnessed how strong leadership from Cornell Central Administration, guided by experts in data, gave us a pathway through a terrifying time. All of this gives you incredible power as you move into the future. Let me explain.
As you know, we are in a pivotal moment in terms of climate change. The choices we make and the actions we implement in this decade toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions will have impacts now and for thousands of years.
The 2023 Summary Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change clearly spells out that there's a rapidly closing window of opportunity to achieve far reaching transitions across all sectors and systems to secure a livable and sustainable future for all. We need to cooperate at the global community level to achieve these climate goals for ourselves and for people we don't even know.
The great news is that with strong leadership, these goals are achievable. We have the resources, the technology, the expertise, and the ingenuity to make these transitions. Even more great news is that biological sciences is a rich and inspiring field that has a central role to play in meeting climate change goals.
You've already been down a similar road in your first year at Cornell when you gained first-hand experience in cooperating to achieve a community-based goal that many thought would be impossible.
There has always been and will always be uncertainty about the future. But the beautiful thing is that uncertainty is inextricably linked to possibility. We have the power to envision the future that we want, and to choose our actions to make it so.
And you have a critical superpower. Your time at Cornell has given you opportunities to better understand the different paths traveled by other people and to value the different gifts and perspectives that come from these different journeys. This gives you a superpower because collaboration among diverse groups is our best hope for our future.
I say this because if we look at how our world came to be, we see a pattern of quantum leaps of capability that result from collaborations amongst diverse groups.
To illustrate this, let's go all the way back to the origin of the universe, to the Big Bang Theory, not the popular TV show, but the theory that explains how the universe came to be. This theory is well supported by observations and analysis of a vast amount of data, and it tells us that everything that makes up the universe today came from an infinitesimally small and inconceivably dense speck, a very small thing.
About 13.8 billion years ago, this tiny speck suddenly began to expand. I will spare you the details, but throughout this expansion, at every step of increasing complexity of matter, diverse things came together to create new properties, new capabilities, and new possibilities.
Initially, only subatomic particles were present. Don't get traumatized. There's a little chemistry here. Subatomic particles were present. Then different subatomic particles combined to form different types of atoms with different properties. Think hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, the stuff we're made up of.
Then different atoms bonded together to form chemically diverse molecules with new functions, and in a mind-blowing leap, different molecules, lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates-- that's biochemistry, right-- water, came together to form self-replicating cells that carried out amazing new functions.
In an even more mind-blowing leap, multicellular organisms emerged with different types of cells performing different essential functions, and with this came the possibility of consciousness, sentient beings. And even on the larger scale of ecosystems, we see that biodiversity is absolutely essential.
So the history of the cosmos at all levels, from subatomic particles to ecosystems, demonstrates that bringing together diverse entities leads to new capabilities and new possibilities. The pattern is so clear.
This gives us incredible hope. Your superpower of valuing and embracing our differences and collaborating to solve problems that we face will enable new possibilities to materialize. Everyone must be included to create the future that we envision.
Class of 2024, each of you are bringing special gifts with you into our shared future. You are exquisitely equipped with knowledge and expertise that prepare you to take the next step on your journey, whatever that may be. Lean into uncertainty and envision new possibilities, knowing that you are brilliant, resilient, and strong, that you have the tools you need. Indeed, you have at least one superpower, and that you are not alone.
Take Cornell's culture of any person, any study with you as you learn from and embrace those who are different from you. Together, we will create new possibilities and we will thrive in whatever lies ahead. Thank you.
And now I would like to introduce Amy Drumluk, Assistant Director of Advising and Coordinator of First-Year Advising in the Office of Undergraduate Biology.
[APPLAUSE]
AMY DRUMLUK: Thank you, Linda. Good evening, students, families, faculty, staff, and all of our supporters of the 2024 Biological Sciences graduates. Tonight, I'm honored to recognize 30 incredible seniors who volunteered as Student Advisors in the Office of Undergraduate Biology.
In this role, they dedicated over 100 hours each year to our nearly 300 first-year and transfer students. More than half of them have been in this role for the past two years.
The general responsibilities of student advisors include introducing and guiding new students through the process of choosing classes, explaining the major, connecting them to important resources on campus. But most notably, they support and empower new students with the guidance, confidence, and skills necessary to be a successful Cornellian.
However, as Dr. Nicholson mentioned, for this group of students, while they spent the past one to two years guiding new and transfer students on how to find their way at Cornell, they were speaking on experiences that they themselves had never had, because they came in the midst of a pandemic.
Many of our seniors arrived at Cornell separated from their families, some of them living in hotels, by themselves to quarantine, and jumped right into the world of virtual learning, all the while discovering how to be a college student, how to find their community, and how to excel at the rigorous academic curriculum within the major.
For some, being at this ceremony here today is the first actual in-person graduation that they've had since kindergarten, or perhaps ever. But despite all of these challenges, these student leaders rose to the occasion. They served as mentors and advisors for their peers. They presented at Cornell days and family weekends, new student information sessions, pre-enrollment Zooms and freshman planning meetings.
They counseled new students face to face over text, in email, on Zoom, and FaceTime, or over ice cream at the dairy bar, selfishly giving of themselves to help others adjust to life on campus, in the classroom, in the lab, through prelims, through research, and across a variety of different concentrations.
At a small celebration a couple of weeks ago, each student advisor was presented with a red and white graduation cord, acknowledging their many contributions. At that time I asked them what their favorite memories at Cornell have been and who helped them to make it through the difficult times.
Their favorite memories fell into three general categories. The first, the Slope, whether it be sunsets, picnics, the first snowfall, sledding, or Slope Day. Second, experiences on campus like homecoming, kayaking Beebe Lake, being in the marching band, figure skating, the polo team, the men's hockey team, the running club. And finally, the third thing, making connections in person, on campus, with friends and roommates, dancing, talking, and laughing.
As for those who helped them to make it through their difficult times, family, lots of love for mom and dad, siblings, roommates, friends, the OUB faculty, and not surprisingly, their own student advisor, who gave to these student advisors what they would then give to others just a few years later, guidance, support, a friendly voice, comfort, and lasting connections.
Student advisors, I invite you to please stand.
[APPLAUSE]
Stay standing. All of you made a difference. So on behalf of the Office of Undergraduate Biology, I would like to thank each and every one of you for your commitment and your enthusiasm to Cornell University and to the Biological Sciences community. It has been a great pleasure working with you and learning from you.
We wish you all of the luck as you move on to the next adventure in your life. And though we are sad to see you go, we are excited about the opportunities that you will find in the future, and we hope that you'll check in with us from time to time. We're forever grateful for the lasting impact that you have made in our community. Please join me one more time in recognizing our student advisors.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you. You can sit now. Now I would like to introduce my colleague, Lora Gruber-Hine, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Research to recognize our Biological Sciences Honors graduates.
[APPLAUSE]
LORA GRUBER-HINE: Thank you, Amy. I am so excited to be here today to celebrate our 2024 Biological Sciences graduates and to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of our undergraduate researchers.
Over 80% of our graduates have engaged in research. Each and every one of those early career scientists have contributed to the creation of new knowledge. Their efforts are critical to building a better world. Their research is advancing medicine, providing insight into human and animal behavior, creating strategies to conserve and protect the planet, and much, much more.
There are many examples of the exemplary research projects our graduates have worked on, yet I can only highlight a few in this speech. Here is just a sampling of topics addressed by their research, demonstrating their contributions their works have made to the scientific community and the broader society-- identifying relationships between parasites spread and habitat changes due to human interference, understanding the role specific plant genes play in resistance to germicidal UV radiation, studying the application of computational modeling to make epidemiological inferences for future health care crises, examining the impact of social defeat stress on parental caregiving, demonstrating the viability of biodegradable graft material to scaffold arterial regeneration.
Pretty amazing stuff. Success in research requires creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, and the ability to communicate clearly and collaborate, and perhaps most important, to be resilient. As all you researchers know, you need determination in order to keep going when your experiments fail.
You need grit when you return to the lab again and again to improve a technique, tenacity to make sense of the vast amount of data collected, and grace when you hear critical feedback from mentors. All of the skills, all of them, that you develop as researchers will serve you no matter what you do next.
Let's take a minute to celebrate the hard work and discoveries of all of the researchers among our 2024 graduates with a round of applause.
[APPLAUSE]
A subset of these student researchers chose to complete an honors thesis. They proposed a research project, worked through their study design, data collection analysis, and ultimately created a written document, a thesis in the format of a scientific journal article. That thesis was reviewed and approved by professional scientists and faculty at Cornell and the Honors Committee.
All honors students were awarded a bronze medallion on a red and white ribbon in recognition of their accomplishment. Will all of the Honors in Research graduates please stand now.
[APPLAUSE]
OK. Please stay-- please stay standing. So on behalf of the entire Biological Sciences community, I would like to congratulate each and every one of you and give you another round of applause. And then you may be seated.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you. I will now turn the program over to Dr. Linda Nicholson. Thank you.
LINDA NICHOLSON: Thank you, Lora. So I now have the great pleasure of announcing the Harry Stinson Award for Outstanding Service to Biology Students. Harry Theodore Stinson was a leading plant geneticist, who served as a Cornell faculty member for 36 years. He came to Cornell as a full professor in 1962 and retired here in 1998. He had a lasting impact on Cornell's Biological Sciences program through his roles as teacher, department chair, and associate director of what was then the Division of Biological Sciences.
He was instrumental in crafting the biology curriculum. And, in fact, he founded what is now BIO-MG 2800, our undergraduate genetics course, which I know you all took. He was committed to supporting undergraduates and advised many Biological Sciences majors, including all transfer students.
To honor Harry's dedication to teaching and mentoring of our undergraduate students, the Office of Undergraduate Biology created the Harry T. Stinson Award for Outstanding Service to Biology Students. This award was presented for the first time at the biological Sciences recognition ceremony on May 27th, 2007, eight months before Harry passed away.
Each year, the senior class nominates a biology faculty member who made a difference in their lives through her or his inspiration, leadership, and support as an advisor, teacher, and-or mentor.
So here are some excerpts from student nominations of this year's recipient. "He has been such a positive impact on my experience at Cornell. His unwavering support of my plans of becoming a physician have provided me with the space to explore and pursue new clinical and academic experiences."
"His class made me think about the world of physiology in a completely nuanced way, and his role as a mentor is one that I will forever cherish."
"He genuinely cared about students outside of the class. Also, his class was well-organized and taught precisely."
"Hands down the best professor and faculty I've ever had the pleasure of interacting with while at Cornell. He cared about the learning and success of his students."
"He was incredibly supportive, so supportive that even when I had no plans to reach out to him, he would check in and ask me to meet with him. I always felt like I learned something valuable from each meeting, whether that be sage career advice, understanding what to focus on and prioritize or encouragement that helped me get up on my feet when I was knocked down."
So it is my great pleasure to announce that this year's recipient of the Stinson Award for Outstanding Service to Biology students. Is Professor Emeritus Mark Roberson. Woo.
[APPLAUSE]
Mark is a Professor Emeritus of Physiology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine, where he launched his faculty career as an assistant professor in 1995. He taught a popular undergraduate course titled Principles of Animal Physiology and mentored many of our Biological Sciences undergraduate students in research during his 29 years of service.
He also served as the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Animal Physiology Concentration in our major, and was a wonderful collaborator in finding colleagues in the vet school to serve as faculty advisors for our majors.
So I'm delighted to honor Professor Roberson with the Harry Stinson Award as a mark of his many years as a valued research mentor and teacher of Biological Sciences students, and as a treasured friend of the OUB.
Unfortunately, Professor Roberson could not be here with us tonight because he's in Denver with his family. Megan Gallagher and Jeff McCaffrey of the Office of Undergraduate Biology were able to surprise him yesterday morning with this award while he was having breakfast in Bambi's. He was stunned.
So Professor Adam Boyko, our current Director of Undergraduate Studies for Animal Physiology concentration and a colleague of Professor Roberson will be accepting this award on Mark's behalf.
[APPLAUSE]
ADAM BOYKO: Thank you, Linda. Mark has asked me to share the following remarks. "Thank you for the honor of receiving the Harry Stinson Award for Outstanding Service to Biology Students. This is a wonderful surprise for me, and I am very grateful for this recognition.
This award also recognizes my teaching colleague, Dr. Praveen Sethupathy. Together we conspired to make our course, Principles of Animal Physiology something worth remembering as you move forward in your careers.
I regret not being at your graduation ceremony to see all of your smiling faces in person. I'm now in Colorado, hanging out with my first granddaughter, Gwendolyn. Gwen is now five months old, and I am happy to report that she has a pretty good handle on the notion that cardiac output equals heart rate times stroke volume.
Congratulations to all the 2024 biology graduates, and remember to thank your parents." So congratulations, Professor Emeritus Mark Roberson.
[APPLAUSE]
Now for what we've all been waiting for, the recognition of our graduates. For this, I would like to introduce Professors Kristina Blake and Cole Gilbert. They'll be reading the names for our graduates.
COLE GILBERT: Patrick Lee.
Jacob Slecker. Elaine Zhang. Kelvin Chen. Kyle Tsujita. Edward Gee. Jennifer Yeh. Mia Demopier. Angela Lee. Anjalee Ghosh. Emma Siebert. Anthony Carnevale.
Olivia Suter. Shwe Mann. Alice Hoo. Jill Muszynski. Julia Kelso. Elena Pinzon. Mary Vinitsky. Austin Farmer. Kamran Nejad.
Jonah Keller. George Resley. Raymond Zhou. Sabalia Boiany. Christopher Jacome. Nadia Prasad. Elizabeth Korn. Destiny Smith.
Ariana Suzanna-Ishkanian. Brooke Lauren Greenfield. Sosa Hobosapien. Benjamin Scouten. Juan Delgado-Mayo. Alana Moskowitz. Diane Kang.
Elena Fuentes. Tara Joseph. Emily Pollock. Eric Lee. Vincente Sanchez. Caleb Radke. Molly Veerkamp. Chris Sczmetian.
Michael Votta. Nolan Shan. Diego Valle. Yunji Jiang. Sandra Hamm. Erica Ruan. Henry Chao. Isabella Cipriano.
Joseph Nakuatole. Nice. Benjamin Shapiro. Dorie Lee. Rena Wang. Min Lei. Shiva Dargham. Andrew Yeo Wang.
Victoria Capobianco. Claire Cesky. David Liu. Tina Dawand. Jeanne Lee. Calvin Fairchild. Dora Donacic. Lindsay Chen.
Bao Gayflobela Kesseli Junior. Emily Shapland. Joseph Nazario. Hugo Amador Amador. Amay Icur.
Zubayr Mohieddin. Amanda Woodford. Olivia Burgos. Alex Lambrianides. Alec Purcell. Kurte Ozuner.
Ralph Florenville. Jayden Queen. Derek Lowell. Miranda Long. Elizabeth Fowler. Matthew Halbert.
Mirna Khalil. Mark Abdelmassih. Audrey Sanchez. Alyssa Flores Oriedes. Marie Figot. Bonbay Sinclair.
Alex Mendeleyev. Crochet Shreedhara. Massimo Fonti. Garrett Perezchica. Henry Chin. Sarah Heshanuma.
Jackie Kim. Yuan Yang. Lucas Vera. Sripad Suresh Babu. Constant Newell.
Yeah, I know. I know. Sean Huang. Song Wen. Joanne Wong. Kobi Raznik. Dana Oshiro. Daniel Chang.
Good idea. Emma Craig. Rachel Craig. Sophia Marie Schwab. Biagio Jannacci. Chidinma Oduma. Quinn Tanoli. Tony Kinchen.
Mihir Ranjan. Joey Patino. Justin Icaza. Adam Chojnicka. Andy Zhang. Natalie Morris. Jiayi Tian. Lucky Tian.
Jaray Farr. August Davidson Onstard. Tristan Tran. Seth Morrison. Orlando Galindez. Isabella Chiocca.
Rebecca Morales. Gianna Morales. Yash Kumar. Jerry Wang. Christopher Piccirillo. Rachel Wu.
Louro Galvao Ataria. Anna Nanas. Dylan Hoyle. Daniela Carrera. Edward Zeltner. Lisette Conde. Cassidy Dennis. Kate Scuderi.
Helena Blugal. Hannah Schultz. Jessica Lee. Ishani Chopra. Stephanie Wellvow.
Ishwara Rajagopalan. Matthew Wang. Aidan Borruso. Michael Ispinagaitus. Arrolee Herrera. Ana Asamoah.
Alexander Saffari. Patrick Brewer. Marisha Tua. Casey Arias Lopez. Lucia Bruzoic. Aleksandra Aleksandru.
Sidney Rosen. Ethan Casas. Zuti Joy Lee. Shiu Mei. Eliza Ryan. Abigail Axelrod. Vicky Jiang. Tracy She.
Brian Wang. Keilan Engstrom. Jonathan Hayden Hoffman.
Yeah. I know. Sounds like grr. Yeah. Alisa Schwerdtfeger. Tysine Murad. Janine Kahn. Rania Ahmed. Sidik Nanababa.
Kelly Bryant. Louisa Adadouro. Precious Ouiwaile. Nicholas Graves. Miles Stefan Garland. Mark Dawes Junior. Mark Dawes Senior is up there.
Ninawai Yang. Afung Ka. John Joy. Asa Shah. Zameer Haque. Mehrab Hassan. Vishnu Kumar. Eiisa Pashupati.
Sofia Rinalli. Jessica Schear. Isabel Cruker. Rile Charle. Olowofoyeku Ajagbe. Jorge Ochoa.
Summer Kim. Ngoc Truong. Samantha Lei. Angela Yuan. Annabella Wuff. Emma Arboleda. Leila Obrume.
Doreen Dong. Serena Laroe. Ryan Kim. Caitlin Liotus. Katherine Yang. Emily Wang. Take that second out. Otherwise they'll get out of order. Yeah.
Hannah Sei. Alec Mehta. Anisa Cespedes. Paloma Kahlo. Obinna Okazie. Isabella Minayev.
Katherine Elbert. Michelle Hassan. Zoe Lynn. Jordan Carter. Julia Forte. Samantha Guice. Julia Zaccaria. Yeah.
Kuh Wang. Chibuike Umahi. Stephen Yang. Michael Sheen. Braden Barber. Lauren Salardo.
Colleen Bradley. Matthew Desimone. Kathryn Roberts. Courtney Lasson. Grace Sappington. Adabelle Wright.
Melanie Stone. Eva Fare. Jahi Noel. Zuri Hannibal. Caitlin Cook. Aaron Brown. Caitlin Anderson. Alex Pomeroy.
Cade Hatton. Carolyn Ramsay. Anna Thomas. Mahalia Donaldson. Micah Sahakian. Mallon White.
Nicolas LaBoi. Dorianne Antglad. Nana Darko. Jennifer Sarpong. Pamela Anderson.
LINDA NICHOLSON: So, class of 2024, I have just a few words more to share with you. So please bear with me. As you move on, just remember to put your own oxygen mask on like they tell you on the plane. Invest the time to look inward so that you know what your oxygen mask is.
Nourish and care for your body and spirit. Think about what you're grateful for each day. Get enough sleep. Connect with others and with nature. Be well so that you can do your greatest good.
And one last thing. It is good that you exist. It is good that you are here. This is a definition of love that I embrace. I love you. And Cornell is a better place because you were here. Please stay close to each other.
[APPLAUSE]
Please stay close to each other and please stay close to the Office of Undergraduate Biology. We love you and we'll be with you as you launch out into your next adventure.
Congratulations. Celebrate this milestone. Celebrate this moment. We will close with the singing of our Cornell Alma Mater, led by six of our seniors. So I invite to the stage, Tara Joseph. Julia Kelso. Eleni Pinzon, Emily Pollock, Nadia Prasad, and Mary Wieneke. I encourage you to sing along as we sing our Alma Mater.
Yes. If everybody would like to stand.
ALL: (SINGING) Far above Cayuga's waters, with its waves of blue, stands our noble Alma Mater, glorious to view.
Life the chorus, speed it onward. Loud her praises tell. Hail to thee, our Alma Mater, hail, oh hail, Cornell.
Far above the busy humming of the bustling town, reared against the arch of Heaven, looks she proudly down.
Life the chorus, speed it onward, loud her praises tell. Hail to thee, our Alma Mater. Hail, all hail, Cornell.
[APPLAUSE]
LINDA NICHOLSON: So that concludes our program. Please feel free-- fell free to take pictures. Safe travels home. Everybody, take good care.
[APPLAUSE]
