Williams Grads Told: Be Kind to 'What Is Strange Within You'
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — After describing herself as neither a speech writer nor a public speaker, Williams College Commencement speaker Cécile McLorin Salvant said that she watched "millions" of similar addresses when figuring out what she would say to the school's Class of 2026.
"I watched Valerie Jarrett's commencement speech from last year here at Williams, and it was so incredibly inspiring," Salvant said. "It was great, but, after watching, I felt like I had even less I wanted to say.
"And then I thought: What if I just showed up here as myself? I have spent so much of my life looking at what other people are doing and trying to fit myself into that, but I don't really fit. And I know you don't really fit, and, actually, I've been most rewarded when I remembered that and when I've honored that."
Salvant said that graduation day is a good time for the graduates to think about what drives them and trust themselves to find a path.
"We're so often looking at what everyone else is doing, distracting ourselves from our own desires and our own idiosyncrasies, and the result is that we get a little more mean, a little less understanding of others, a little more stingy, a little less kind," Salvant said. "So what I'm advocating for, ultimately, is a kindness that goes both ways. That kindness toward yourself, toward what is strange within you, is that same kindness with which you can meet the people in the world around you, and you can keep giving that kindness both ways, even when you think you have none left to give."
And, with that, the three-time Grammy winner and MacArthur fellow told the crowd that she was going to be true to her self, launching into a stirring a cappella rendition of West Side Story's "Somewhere," composed by longtime Tanglewood fixture Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Williams alum Stephen Sondheim.
Salvant was one of a handful speakers who took a turn at the podium at the school's 237th Commencement Exercises.
Her address was preceded by orations from two members of the Class of '26, one of whom also talked about being true to oneself.
Asking her classmates, "What is your why?" Phi Beta Kappa Speaker Janine Wang encouraged her fellow soon-to-be graduates to think about the things that "feed your soul."
"Chances are, your answers lie not in paychecks, titles, accolades but in smaller, quieter moments, moments when you lose yourself in a task, environment or company," Wang said. "Moments when all that matters is what's at hand and not what's to come. Moments of complete contentment, where simply being in that moment is enough – more than enough.
"Cradled in these moments, in the process, are the titles, paychecks, accolades that come at the end of the process, like this very graduation – not to say that it's not important or unworthy of celebration, in fact, congratulations to us – but these achievements become mere byproducts, mere means to an end and far from and not to be confused with the end itself."
Among the 572 members of the Class of '26 honored on Sunday were 11 residents of Berkshire County and three students from nearby Southern Vermont.
Members of Williams' Class of '26 from the area included:
Bennington, Vt.'s, Olivia Johnson; Great Barrington's Sam Jaffe; Lee's Alexis Chisom; Lenox's Sabrina Lewis and Mary Pelosky; Manchester Center, Vt.'s, Eliza Sullivan; North Adams' Zoe Kerns; Otis' Jon Oris; Pittsfield's Cameron Langsdale; Pownal, Vt.'s, Maia Shore Sheppard; and Williamstown's Cathy McPartland, Daisy Rosalez, Emma Sandstrom and Kate
Swann.
Salvant, who also sang a musical version of a poem by 14th century poet Hafez, was not the only musician featured at the event. Economics major Michael Ma started the proceedings with a performance of "America the Beautiful" on his guitar and later performed Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin.' "
As is tradition, the commencement ceremony on the Paresky Lawn recognized retiring members of the Williams College faculty, secondary school educators who received the school's George Olmsted Jr. Class of 1924 Prize for Excellence in Secondary School Teaching and one honor for a graduating senior singled out from the more than 100 prizes bestowed on Saturday at the school's Ivy Exercises.
That singular award is the William Bradford Turner Citizenship Prize, awarded this year to Samantha Samuel.
"Through their advocacy and organization, they have prioritized the importance of every person feeling a sense of belonging to and responsibility for our community," Williams President Maud Mandel said of Samuel. "Their concern for others stretches out from Williams into the wider region. They've been particularly sensitive to issues of food insecurity in the Berkshires, organizing efforts to help our neighbors who experienced a sudden loss of [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] food benefits."
Generosity was a theme for a couple of the speakers on Sunday morning.
"As you cultivate interior freedom, may you root your identities, not simply in what you do, where you work, or how much you make, earn or possess," College Chaplain Bridget Power said in the invocation. "It is in sharing yourselves and your gifts that you will be able to flourish and enable the flourishing of others."
Class Speaker Mariel Baez talked about how members of the Class of '26 helped each other flourish, even when times were tough, over the last four years.
"Our last few days on campus have been a blur, mostly because we've been given so much free alcohol that when we all look back on our time at Williams, we'll remember all the fun we had this week instead of all the time we spent crying over our classes," Baez said.
"During one of my first semesters, I took a test, and I received a grade that I will not share with you all today out of fear of disturbing my mother in the audience. My professor reached out to me to go over my answers, and I arrived at her office bawling. She comforted me as we walked through the exam, offered me a hug and sent me off to my dorm with candy. While I'm grateful for my professor's kindness, my friends had to pick up the rest of the pieces with me. They held me as I cried it out, helped me pivot study methods and stitched me back together.
"This is what makes Williams so great. It is us."
Baez encouraged her classmates to take the kindness they have shown one another at Williams into the next phase of their lives.
"I'm speaking so much about our community and resilience because, without it, we wouldn't have gotten to this point," she said. "Regardless of where you've come from or what you're going home to, walking across this stage, getting this degree, is a huge success.
"Remember this as you're graduating into a world that is far from ideal. We will use what we have learned in our 'purple bubble' to tackle the problems that face us outside."
Local students graduating on Sunday included:
Bennington, Vt.: Olivia Johnson
Great Barrington: Sam Jaffe
Lee: Alexis Chisom
Lenox: Sabrina Lewis and Mary Pelosky
Manchester Center, Vt.: Eliza Sullivan
North Adams: Zoe Kerns
Otis: Jon Oris
Pittsfield: Cameron Langsdale
Pownal, Vt.: Maia Shore Sheppard
Williamstown: Cathy McPartland, Daisy Rosalez, Emma Sandstrom, Kate Swann
Tags: graduation 2026, Williams College,
