Williams Grads Told Not to Be Wedded to Their Plans
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — No doubt, many of the 575 newly minted Williams College graduates have big plans for their post-college lives.
But during Sunday's 236th commencement exercise, they were reminded not to put too much stock in those designs.
Mayel Levin, the Phi Beta Kappa Society speaker and one of two graduates to address the crowd on the Library Quad told her classmates that her path to a bachelor's degree did not follow a conventional blueprint.
"Many students arrived at Williams straight from high school with AP credits, joined the right clubs, built strong resumes and already had impressive jobs or grad programs lined up after graduation," Levin said. "That path takes real work and fits the vision of success that we're taught to recognize.
"But I didn't come in that way, and I'm not leaving that way. Honestly, resting is the most impressive plan I have for after graduation."
Levin said she did not get to the podium by doing everything right but by "getting things wrong over and over and deciding to try again."
"My transcript doesn't say that many years ago, I dropped out of college twice and that for many years I thought I would never finish a degree," Levin continued. "My transcript doesn't say that, as an immigrant to this county, I spent years working jobs you don't need a resume for. And they weren't summer gigs. I did it for a living.
"Eventually, I did go back to school — first to community college and then here. I didn't come to Williams with a master plan. I came because I still had questions, because something in me still needed to be rewritten."
Valerie Jarrett, the former senior advisor to President Barack Obama and current CEO of the Obama Foundation, rewrote her life story after succeeding at and then abandoning the plan she laid out after graduation from Stanford University.
"Ten years into my 10-year plan, I had checked so many boxes: law school, great law firm, better law firm, fell in love, got married, had a baby," Jarrett said. "Lived happily ever after? No.
"Ten years in, I found myself in a fancy office, looking out with a magnificent view of Lake Michigan in Chicago with my back to the door, crying. And I wondered, thinking about my daughter, if she would ever be as proud of me as I had always been of my mother, who somehow flawlessly managed to give me the impression that she had managed the mighty juggle of being a successful single mom."
"I was living what so many around me thought was the perfect life, but I had ignored the most important voice, the one we have buried deep inside of us."
And it was then that Jarrett switched gears and began a life of public service — first in Chicago city government and, eventually, in the White House.
"I discovered that when the perfect plan crumbles, that's when the adventure begins," Jarrett said. "That unplanned decision to pay attention to what I wanted, to be flexible and courageous enough to swerve, to change the course of my life.
"And it taught me this: Plans will only work if they lead to a life that is meaningful to you, as only you can define it."
Among the hundreds of graduates ready Saturday to face life's next adventure were 16 graduates from Berkshire County.
Joining Levin in the Class of '25 were: Dalton's Brandon Roughley and Ethan Scott; Lanesborough's Carolyn Jones; Lee's Stone Murphy; Lenox's Harry Albert and Jacob Fanto; North Adams' Michael Faulkner; Pittsfield's Brendan Stannard, Kyle Gwilt and Briana Palmieri; West Stockbridge's Alec Bachman; and Williamstown's Miles Fippinger, Diego Mongue, Toby Foehl, Olivia Winters and John Skavlem.
Faulkner was recognized as one of eight graduates who shared the honor of being called a valedictorian.
The one award bestowed to an undergraduate each year at commencement, the college's Bradford Turner Citizenship Prize, went to Samantha Jo Sidders.
College President Maud called the class "an amazing mix of bachelor's candidates."
And she touched on a couple of issues that are impacting academia.
"With this, the college's 236th commencement, we continue the tradition of flying the flags of each of the 53 countries represented by this year's graduates — inspiring symbols of the world from which our students have gathered and into which they will go forth today," Mandel said. "In this current moment, it is important to take stock and celebrate the many students, faculty and staff from around the world who enrich our community.
"If you have learned from, been supported by, engaged with or in any way benefited from the presence of international members of our community, please give a rousing round of applause now."
After hearing the applause she sought, Mandel acknowledged an apparent campus protest that marked the start of graduation day at Williams.
"We've had many discussions on campus about world events, and we have many points of view reflected within our community," she said. "I'm sure many of you do at home as well. For us, this has been reflected in some protest activity this weekend and also at other moments during the time these students have been on campus.
"Today is a time for the seniors to feel good about their accomplishments. And family and friends are here from around the world to celebrate. So I won't go on at length, but I wanted to acknowledge that broader context that we're all involved in right now. We will no doubt go back to those discussions, but I hope today we can all come together and honor the spirit of this commencement celebration."
Jarrett, who, at the Obama Foundation, works to "build an active democratic culture where people are equipped and motivated to make change," noted the deep political divisions in the nation but said, "Despite all of this … there is hope."
"And that's where you come in, class of 2025," she continued.
She told the graduates that on Saturday she visited the Davis Center, which focuses on "campus engagement with complex issues of identity, history and cultures."
"I knew Allison Davis, one of two brothers after whom the center is named," Jarrett said. "And even though Davis graduated from Williams in 1924, he was unable to land a teaching position here, most likely because of his race. So rather than accept defeat, he took on the arduous and circuitous road that led him to the University of Chicago, where I am on the board of trustees, and he became an internationally recognized academic in the field of education and social anthropology.
"So it is a sign of great progress that, decades later, this institution, when faced with demonstrations from its very own students calling for change, created the Davis Center, and Davis' granddaughter, Jordan, had a very different experience here than her grandfather, because people were willing to change."
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