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Dear Members of the Sarah Lawrence Community,
I am delighted to write to you just a week removed from Sarah Lawrence’s 96th Commencement, held on May 10. It was a day marked by celebration and collective achievement, reflecting the resilience and dedication that characterize our community, in particular this year’s graduates. In these challenging times, our ceremony was a poignant reminder of the power of togetherness.
We were honored to welcome U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy as our Commencement speaker. His inspiring message, rich with personal stories of adversity and triumph, resonated deeply, and his emphasis on relationships and the importance of staying connected in our rapidly changing world was a timely reminder of the values we cherish as a community. Simply put, Dr. Murthy’s remarks were the perfect words for this moment — acknowledged with a warm and enthusiastic standing ovation — and it is my pleasure to use this issue of From the President’s Desk to share them with you. If you have not yet seen Dr. Murthy’s address, I encourage you to watch it; and if you have seen it, I suspect more than a few of you, like me, will want to watch it again.
The Commencement recap site contains photos from the day as well as videos of all our speakers. The site also features photos and a full video from our Graduate Hooding ceremony, held the night before Commencement to recognize our graduate students and their accomplishments in pursuit of advanced degrees.
In my remarks at Commencement, I reflected on the Class of 2024’s arrival at SLC during the depth of the pandemic, recalling the hashtag that emerged as our calling card throughout those days: #SarahLawrenceTogether. As I said to our graduates, it is my firm belief that our commitment to Sarah Lawrence Together is what has sustained us through the challenges that have come our way and will sustain us into the future. As I extended my thanks to the graduates for their resilience, care, and respect for one another, I extend those same thanks to all of you.
I look forward to seeing many of you at Reunion in just a few weeks, and to sharing with all of you later in June a full Year in Review of the 2023-24 academic year.
Yours,
Cristle Collins Judd
President
president@sarahlawrence.edu
Instagram: @slcprez