Baccalaureate Remarks Given By President Anne F. Harris

Good morning!  It is my joy and my privilege to welcome you to Grinnell College’s 2026 Baccalaureate celebration. The word “bacca-laureate” emerges from that for bachelor [of arts] (the degree you will be receiving tomorrow) and laurels, signifying honor. And so, this welcome time together is claimed to honor the achievements of those on whom the bachelor’s degree will soon (very soon) be bestowed.

This event is organized entirely by the students whose names you see listed in your program as the 2026 Commencement Committee – please join me in thanking Medhashree, Kristen, Evan, Conrad, Ananya, Bella, My Ha, Parikshit, Aanu, Brian, Diya, and Morgan! They select and invite the speakers, they arrange the music, they bring the joy – and they do it with the able and steadfast help of Jenny Ferris, Jenelle Veit and their many campus partners.

Class of 2026, you are about to hear wise words from wonderful people whom you selected as your faculty speakers, and your senior student peakers. Their words and this ceremony will bring us closer across the threshold that will signal your ontological passage from student to graduate to alum. Time is in flux in liminal spaces; time morphs around thresholds – for all of us: graduates, parents, supporters – and you may find yourself thinking of moments long ago or yet far off – and that is good, that is ok: let this time nourish you as you wish. 

I’ll close as I began, with the origin of a word: “nourish” is at the Latin root of the word alum: “alere” means to nourish or nurture. There is a reciprocity to the word: how the alum is nourished by the College, and how the College is nourished by the alum. You have already engaged in this reciprocity, class of 2026: and Grinnell is the better for your advocacy, for the challenges you take on and the challenges you bring forward, for the ways you have nurtured each other, and for the light you shine.