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SPEAKER 1: Please welcome the Cornell Jeb E Brooks School of Public Policy, class of 2024.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Please welcome the faculty of the Cornell Jeb E Brooks School of Public Policy.
[CHEERING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Please welcome University Trustee and Cornell Jeb E Brooks School Dean's Advisory Council Member Valisha Graves, class of '85.
[APPLAUSE]
[CHEERING]
Please welcome chair of the executive committee of the Cornell Board of Trustees and the inaugural chair of the Cornell Jeb E Brooks School Dean's Advisory Council, Peggy Koenig, class of '78.
[APPLAUSE]
[CHEERING]
Please welcome Cornell Jeb E Brooks School of Public Policy Dean Colleen Barry.
[CHEERING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS: Good afternoon. I'm Gustavo Flores-Macias, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the Brooks School of Public Policy. I'm honored to welcome you to the Brooks School commencement ceremony. I hope you're having a wonderful weekend. We're gathered to celebrate the achievements, success, and bright futures of our Brooks School graduates from the class of 2024. We wish to acknowledge that Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogohono, the Cayuga Nation. The Gayogohono are members of the Shawnee confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land.
The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York State, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of the Gayogohono dispossession and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogohono people, past and present, to these lands and waters. Now, before I introduce the dean, I would like to offer a special thanks to the Brooks School commencement team who arranged this event and to the Brooks school staff who have volunteered to make this event possible. Join me in thanking them.
[APPLAUSE]
COLLEEN BARRY: Now, it is my pleasure to introduce Dean Colleen Barry. Colleen L Barry is the inaugural Dean of the Cornell Jeb E Brooks School of Public Policy. She's a nationally and internationally recognized research scholar, educator, and leader in the areas of mental health and addiction policy, violence prevention policy, and policy communication. Dr. Barry is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Social Insurance. As a founding dean, Dr. Barry has an influential role in building Cornell's newest school into one of international. Prominence please join me in welcoming Dean Barry to the podium.
[CHEERING]
The class of 2024 of the Cornell Jeb E Brooks school of Public Policy, congratulations.
[CHEERING]
To begin, I would like to acknowledge members of the Board of Trustees and my Dean's Advisory Council, Peggy Koenig and Valisha Graves, who are here with us today, thank you for your wonderful leadership of our university and many contributions as Brooks School Dean's Advisory Council members in these very early years of our school. I am grateful for your wise counsel.
[APPLAUSE]
It is my pleasure now to welcome Peggy Koenig to the podium. In addition to being inaugural chair of our Brooks School Dean's Advisory Council, Peggy has served Cornell as a member of the Board of Trustees for 12 years and chairs the executive committee of the board. She is also co-chair of Cornell's Capital Campaign and has served Cornell in many other ways. She is a true champion for using public policy as a lever to improve people's lives. Please join me in welcoming Peggy Koenig to the podium to present the Brooks School John Siliciano awards.
[APPLAUSE]
PEGGY KOENIG: Thank you, Colleen. It is my pleasure to announce the recipients of the Jeb E Brooks School of Public Policy John Siliciano Student Leadership awards. Awardees, please make your way to the podium now.
[CHEERING]
So this award honors Professor John Siliciano, who completed 18 years of service as Cornell's deputy provost in 2022. Among his many achievements and contributions to Cornell as deputy provost, John Siliciano played an indispensable role in overseeing the creation of the Brooks School. I will note that John will join the university leadership team once again this July as interim provost, demonstrating, once again, his exemplary service to the university.
The Siliciano award recognizes graduating undergraduate and graduate Brooks School students who display leadership through stellar academic achievement, high impact public engagement, and distinguished service to Cornell. So from the Bachelor of Science in Health Care Policy program, Nikita Zachariah.
[CHEERING]
Congratulations.
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From the Bachelor of Science in Policy Analysis and Management Program. Riya Patel.
[CHEERING]
From the Master of Health Administration program, Lyla Saxena.
[CHEERING]
From the Master of Public Administration program, Mollie Montague.
[CHEERING]
And from the PhD program, Megan Hyland.
[CHEERING]
GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS: Now we will present the graduates. Graduates, please follow the guidance of our staff to walk across the stage and receive your certificate. A photographer will take photos of graduates as they receive their certificates from Dean Barry. We ask all guests to remain in your seats during the awarding of the degrees. We will present the students receiving their degrees grouped by program.
In a slight deviation from your program, the doctoral degree candidates will be hooded first. Then in the following order, bachelor of science in health care policy, bachelor of science in policy analysis and management, Executive Master of Health Administration, Master of Health Administration, Executive Master of Public Administration, Master of Public Administration. Now Associate Professor Nick Sanders, Director of Graduate Studies, will introduce the doctoral degree candidates.
NICK SANDERS: With a PhD in public policy, Ari Decter-Frain.
[CHEERING]
Dr. Decter-Frain's title of his dissertation was "Essays In Computational Demography," and today he is hooded by his advisor, Matt Hall.
[CHEERING]
With a PhD in public policy, Megan Hyland.
[CHEERING]
Dr. Hyland's dissertation is titled "Essays On Health Care Information In Hospital, Outpatient, Nursing Home And Pharmaceutical Settings," and today she is hooded by her advisor, Sean Nicholson.
[CHEERING]
With a PhD in Public Policy. Revathy Suryanarayana.
[CHEERING]
Dr. Suryanarayana's title of the dissertation is "Essays On The Intergenerational Impacts Of Public Policies." Her advisor and hooder today is Seth Sanders.
[APPLAUSE]
With a PhD in Public Policy, Shyam Raman.
[CHEERING]
Dr. Raman's dissertation is titled "The Essays On The Economics Of Cannabis Policy," and he is hooded by his advisor today, John Colie.
[APPLAUSE]
And with a PhD in Economics, Elmer Lee.
[CHEERING]
Dr. Lee's dissertation is titled "Labor Demand And The Macro Economy." His advisor was Professor Mike Lovenheim, and he's hooded today by Professor Kelly Musick.
[CHEERING]
Now, please join me in recognizing the achievements of our PhDs and wishing them continued success in their future careers.
[CHEERING]
I would now like to introduce Professor Sharon Sassler, director of undergraduate studies, who will lead us in honoring our graduates with the bachelors of science degrees.
SPEAKER 2: Students came in the wrong order. So afterwards, I'm going to hand you-- when you say introduce Matt. OK?
SHARON SASSLER: I'm sorry?
SPEAKER 2: Just--
SHARON SASSLER: OK. Matt. OK. All right.
Megan Hong.
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Rachel Kim.
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Lasya Rivula Pati.
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Saanvi Bhardwaj.
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Isobel Sanderson.
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Gina Lombardo.
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Nikita Zachariah.
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Veronica Zellers.
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Cameron White.
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Christian Selvin.
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Alexandra Nicole Yakuv.
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Sharon Eng.
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Alan Callipuera.
[CHEERING]
Please join me in round of applause for our bachelor of science and health care policy graduates.
[CHEERING]
Next, the bachelor of science in policy analysis and management.
William Kim.
[CHEERING]
Paige Schultz.
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Zoe Farber.
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Olivia Lubroth Fox.
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Andrew Danziger.
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Melina Steinberg.
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Lily Sussman Deutsch.
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Anna Donata.
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Haley Kevinoke.
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Megan O'Leary.
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Aria Bajraktari.
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Laura Lee.
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Fiona B Gupta.
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Sasha Abaiva.
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Ramona Marie Matin.
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Justice Hof.
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Max Roush.
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Ahmed Suleyman.
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Sabrina Gordon.
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Jasmine Singh.
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Aanchal Kumar.
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Maya Lerner.
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Rachel Habib Wells.
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Ria Bavishi.
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Lauren Weintraub.
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Caroline Rocco.
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Jenna Looper.
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Catherine Dao.
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Amber Pearl Whetstone.
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John Capwell.
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Sylvan Patel.
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Jason Liu.
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Devansh Juksanghani.
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Taius Sha.
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Riya Patel.
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Grace Lee.
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Jai Joy Chan.
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Claire Templeman.
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Declan Traver.
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Alexa Judy Natalie.
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Megan Brady Fuksman.
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Chase Stanley Young.
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Jonathan Feinberg.
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Tyler Unwrap.
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Jason Gordon.
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Andreas Psachos.
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Alexander Hare Perez.
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Hunter Maskin.
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Elizabeth Taber.
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Abigail Regis.
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Kayla Butler.
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Jada Samoy Grant.
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Matthew Chang.
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Yijun Youn.
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Alexander Choi.
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Hold on. OK.
Harkirat Quoi Sangha.
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Tadarius Jeremiah Moxie.
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Please join me in round of applause for our bachelor of science in policy and management graduates.
[CHEERING]
Next, Professor Matt Hall, Director of the Master of Public Administration program, will introduce the Executive Master of Public Administration and Master of Public Administration degree graduates.
[CHEERING]
MATT HALL: So we are actually going to move to introduce Sean Nicholson, director of the Sloan program, who will introduce the Executive Master and Master of Health Administration graduates.
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SEAN NICHOLSON: David Martinez Visentin.
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Daniel Volstein.
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Samyuktha Singh.
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Chelsea Ann Bethel.
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Natalie Rose Stopfer.
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Divyna Anavarshima.
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Jack V Wig.
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Esther Akapo.
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Elizabeth Mahmudullah.
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Christopher Tran.
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William Hassabis.
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Sophia Quinones Vilella.
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Morgan Cutter.
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Nathalia Valdivia.
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Sai Nivedita JS.
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Sparkle Slim.
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Serena Elizabeth Newsome.
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Kizzer Jaffrey.
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Nay Thu Rain Ong.
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Mariaje Canelos.
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Channing Brooke Hamilton.
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Lyla Saxena.
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Vince Lesnicki.
[CHEERING]
Please join me in round of applause for our Executive Master of Health Administration and Master of Health Administration graduates.
[CHEERING]
Next, Professor Matt Hall, Director of the Master of Public Administration program, will introduce the Executive Master of Public Administration and Master of Public Administration degree graduates.
[CHEERING]
MATT HALL: Raul Whosnay.
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Amal Gasolin.
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Huda Shah.
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Mohamed Hani Hassan.
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Anika Marie McGraw.
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Katie Farrell.
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Aria Jacarandas.
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Shipra Mishra.
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Leo Z Hull.
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Miriana Stanisha.
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Harshita Maheshwari.
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Sahun Kim.
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Zilin Leo.
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Chien Ch'uan Yao.
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Ning Hsieh.
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Zeeshan Meen.
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Jennifer Bustamante.
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Natalie Elchico.
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Brandon James Nadig.
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Janet Unhi Shin.
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Sophia Lopez Cartagena.
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Mollie Montague.
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Eleanor Norrie Wright.
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Abigail Schmidt.
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Yi Ming Chung.
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Amber Engwell.
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Margaret Weis.
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Destiny JL Brown Hernandez.
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Putumayo Midongy.
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Bianca Bennett Scott.
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Tiara Labrada.
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Bo Ping Hong.
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Yi Gwang Chang.
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Cheng Ru Wang.
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Jae Hwan Lee.
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Tonghui Zhang.
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Shi Chen.
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Sho Yuan Fung.
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Xie Yi Lien.
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Yan Zhao Li.
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Qingdao Song.
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Yan Yan Shan.
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Coco Saik UA.
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Yeoju Chen.
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Shi Cheng.
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Yu Ming Gua.
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Chio Han.
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Wendy Lao.
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CK Tang.
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Ji Ya Ming.
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Hemu Long.
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Ching Ching Hsieh.
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Xiamen Tu.
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Ye Xu.
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Le Ming Yuan.
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Kyunghe Lee.
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Jenu Ri Helen Lee.
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Yiran Wang.
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Shin Jin.
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Yashi Lee.
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Yafan Nea.
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Shenzhen Hu.
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Chung Wang.
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Shon Luay.
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Dion Gu.
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Tzee Cheng Tong.
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Yujia Zhang.
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Wenbo Gao.
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Jin Choi Zuya.
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Xu Lee.
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Gloria Wow.
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Jan Hahn.
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Jiannan Zhou.
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Tot Ong Paing.
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Ahdong Mai.
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Tian Room Muho.
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Yaran Zhang.
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Youka Li.
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Kedem Nasir Ohwaiz.
[CHEERING]
Yi Fang Su.
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Xichuan Wang.
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Please join me in round of applause for our Executive Master of Public Administration and Master of Public Administration graduates.
[CHEERING]
I would now like to welcome Dean Colleen Barry back to the podium.
[APPLAUSE]
COLLEEN BARRY: It is my great honor to present to you the class of 2024 of the Jeb E Brooks School of Public Policy. Please join me in congratulating our graduates.
[CHEERING]
Graduates, it is wonderful to be here with you and your loved ones, celebrating all that you have achieved in your time here at Cornell. As we congratulate you, I want to also thank those who have contributed to making this day possible. First, congratulations to all the proud parents, family members, and friends with us today in Bailey Hall, and also to those who have supported you who are not here with us today. Graduates.
[APPLAUSE]
Join me in thanking your loved ones.
[APPLAUSE]
For everything they have done to support you to reach this day. Let's also acknowledge our faculty, our program directors, and incredibly talented staff who have dedicated themselves to supporting you to thrive in your studies. Join me in thanking them now.
[CHEERING]
And of course, I want to express my gratitude to our Brooks School volunteers and commencement organizers. Thank you all.
[APPLAUSE]
This year, unlike other years. I want to take a moment to honor our graduates who lost a graduation celebration during the COVID pandemic. If you were unable to celebrate your high school graduation or any other graduation due to a cancelation associated with the pandemic, please stand now and be recognized.
[CHEERING]
Keep standing. Don't sit. We are proud of each of you for everything you have achieved, recognized and unrecognized. Everyone, please join me one more time in acknowledging this distinguished group.
[CHEERING]
Thank you. Graduates, as you set off in this next exciting phase of your lives, I anticipate you will take with you much of what you have learned in our classrooms. I hope you will also carry forward a sense of the core values of Cornell. At our university commencement this morning, President Pollack referenced them. They are purposeful discovery, exploration across boundaries, free and open inquiry and expression, a nurturing of a community of belonging, respect for the natural world, and changing lives through public engagement.
As President Pollack noted, we have been reminded of the inherent tensions in these core values throughout this complicated year. These values have threaded themselves through your experience on our campus, and I would argue they are well worth considering as you move into the next stage of your lives. The first is purposeful discovery. Purposeful discovery. These are very academic words. Yet a willingness to inquire, to probe, to embrace, an openness to being a lifelong learner sets the foundation for an endlessly fascinating life.
This involves letting go of the idea that we have it all figured out, and some of the ego or even righteousness associated with it. To be human is to never have it all figured out. Yet the university setting encourages us to strive, to discover, to grow, to generate new knowledge. Leave your classrooms behind. But I hope you will hold on to an openness to discovery throughout your lives. This connects closely to Cornell's second core value, exploration across boundaries.
Ezra Cornell set forth a vision that Cornell would be a place to find instruction in any study. At the Brooks School, we have been committed to the notion that, in fact, the most significant policy problems we face as a global society cannot be solved within a single scholarly discipline. Making meaningful change in our complex world requires us all to become boundary spanners. You are being credentialed today at Cornell, but I don't want you to ever feel bound by that credentialing.
Our main goal has always been to train you to be critical, creative, and flexible thinkers. Cornell's third core value is free and open inquiry and expression. Universities are vital institutions for advancing democratic principles, including the free expression of ideas, even those we may disagree with. This notion has been put to the test this year at Cornell and at universities around our country.
We have grappled with upholding protest as an essential part of a university's core values and determining when actions cross the line into threats or unlawful harassment. And we have seen members of our own community land in very different places in reconciling these tensions. This has challenged our campus community in ways that at times have been genuinely painful. Yet I will submit to you that policy schools like ours have a unique role to play in this work.
Our purpose is to educate future policy leaders with the capacity to articulate views on important topics, with the skills of effective communication, persuasion, and negotiation, but also with the ability to acknowledge the nuance and contradiction at the heart of every major conflict and the willingness to genuinely listen to other perspectives, to listen with some humility and openness to the possibility that our views might shift through respectful dialogue. At their very best, policy schools like ours can be the drivers, the mediators, and the critics of a continually changing society.
As you leave Cornell, I encourage you to seek out as many opportunities as you can to develop your voice and your views and also your ability to listen with respect to others. The fourth Cornell value involves nurturing a community of belonging. How do we find belonging on a campus with people whose perspectives and life experiences are so different from our own? Finding belonging is much easier when we surround ourselves with people who think about the world the same way we do. Finding belonging within a diverse community like the one we have here at Cornell is much harder work.
Think back across your time on our campus. Who have you helped, supported, or made to feel more at home? How have you contributed to making Cornell and the Brooks School a more welcoming place, and how can you take that same nurturing of belonging into the next phase of your lives? Again, I will return to Ezra Cornell's founding idea of any person, any study. As you move forward in your lives, graduates, I hope you will continue to take time to work to create communities of belonging that allow you to engage meaningfully with people whose perspectives differ from your own.
The fifth core value of Cornell is respect for the natural world. Living here surrounded by the beauty of the Finger Lakes, we are reminded daily of the importance of preserving and protecting our environment. At the Brooks School, we have prioritized sustainability policy as a core area that we aspire to grow in the years ahead. As alums, you should hold us to that commitment. A few of you came here with the goal of studying environmental policy. For the rest of you, I would ask, are there ways you can contribute to the sustainability, the biodiversity, or simply the beauty of the world that we live in?
Finally, Cornell's sixth core value is changing lives through public engagement. This commitment to engagement with the world reflects the land grant mission of Cornell, and it's also core to what policy schools should be all about. At the Brooks School, we have established public engagement as a core pillar in our strategic plan.
I sit on the governing board of Sandy Hook Promise, a national organization dedicated to protecting children from gun violence. Sandy Hook Promise was established by the family members of the six and seven year olds who lost their lives in the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in 2012. Last week, I attended our annual Sandy Hook Promise Board of Directors retreat and marveled at how my fellow board members are able to do this work.
They lost their beautiful children in one of the most horrific ways imaginable. Children who would be in college right now. In the face of their grief, these parents work every single day to protect other children from gun violence. They made the choice to reach beyond their own grief and engage. In every phase of your career as graduates, I encourage you to ask yourself, how am I engaging with the world around me? How is what I'm doing today contributing in a concrete way to making the world a better place?
Before I end, I want to say a word about your time here at the Brooks School. You are our third graduating class. When you arrived at Cornell, depending on the length of your degree, our school either hadn't been established yet or was just getting off the ground. It amazes me to think about how much has changed in such a short time period. I hope you feel the same pride I do to have been here at the very beginning.
It is not often that an Ivy League University decides to start a brand new school. We are all part of something special. Something unusual. The Brooks School will be here in a hundred years, long after all of us are gone. Institutions endure, and the founding ideas and values of the people who were there at the start matter. All of you, our Brooks School graduates, faculty, staff, families, have contributed to our founding years. And graduates, you will continue to do so through. Your achievements as alums.
We have prepared you to do important work in your careers, to improve people's lives, to reduce suffering in the world, and to make our world a more prosperous, equitable, and healthier place. And in doing so, you will be living up to the investment made in you by your teachers and professors and coaches and faith leaders, and your families. I want to close with an invitation.
In the years ahead, come back and spend time on our beautiful campus. Cornell and the Brooks School will always be your home. Watch how we grow and change. Take advantage of the opportunity to visit your professors and our staff to experience how proud they are of what you're doing with your lives. There is no greater pleasure for us than to watch you thrive.
Find ways to stay connected to your classmates. They offer a powerful network that can serve you through your careers. Become mentors to future Brooks School students. At some point, come back again here to Bailey Hall, stand alone in this beautiful building, and remember today, your graduation day. What it took to get here, what you accomplished while you were here, and how you have used your degree to make the world a better place. Feel proud of yourself, and know that we are very proud of you. Congratulations to the--
[CHEERING]
Congratulations to the Brooks School class of 2024.
[CHEERING]
Now, if you haven't already done so, please stand as you are able, link arms with our graduates, and join us in singing the Cornell "Alma Mater." You will find the words in your program and also on the screen behind us.
AUDIENCE: (SINGING) Far above Cayuga's waters
With its waves of blue
Stands our noble alma mater
Glorious to view
Lift the chorus
Speed it onward
Loud her praises tell
Hail to thee, our alma mater
Hail, all hail, Cornell
Far above the busy humming
Of the bustling town
Reared against the arch of heaven
Looks she proudly down
Lift the chorus
Speed it onward
Loud her praises
Hail to thee, our alma mater
Hail, all hail, Cornell
[CHEERING]
GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS: Congratulations again to the Brooks class of 2024.
[CHEERING]
Graduates and faculty, please follow our ushers' instructions and head outside to line up for a class photo before our reception on the Plaza. We ask that all guests remain in their seats until all of the graduates and faculty have left Bailey Hall. Then please join us on the Plaza for our celebration reception. Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
