A commencement marks an important moment in time.
Today, we mark the end of your studies at Duke and the beginning of your lives as Duke alumni.
Today's commencement ceremony also marks another significant point of inflection this year as we celebrate our university's centennial, we're also celebrating the 100th class to graduate from Duke.
Perhaps you've noticed that many of our graduates are wearing blue robes today as a special symbol of this milestone.
This wonderful alignment of two profound turning points our centennial and your graduation today is a moment both of inflection and a moment for reflection.
It's an opportunity to reflect on all that we together have learned and achieved since Trinity College was transformed into our Duke University, and it's an opportunity to look ahead to the great promise, your great promise as a generation called to lead in an uncertain world.
Looking forward and looking back, I feel a sense of profound confidence that you are up for the challenge.
Indeed, you've already seen and persevered through some unanticipated twists and turns in the road.
Many of you saw your senior years of high school disrupted by the pandemic, and missed out on your graduation then, and all of you have had to navigate several years of significant academic and social disruption.
The undergraduate class of 24 arrived at Duke before Covid vaccines were available, at a time when masking and social distancing where our best tools for protecting each other, even though they were antithetical to community building and the typical college experience.
