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On Friday, May 16, David Buitrago, who majored in Aerospace Engineering, was bestowed a bachelor’s degree at WPI’s 156th Commencement. Nearly 1,300 undergraduate degrees were awarded during the ceremony.
President Grace J. Wang, PhD, and Board of Trustees Chair William Fitzgerald presided over the exercises.
Wang told members of the Class of 2025 they are entering a changing world filled with competing visions for how to solve challenges and advance society. But, she said, along with knowledge and technical competence in their chosen fields of study, WPI graduates have been equipped with the ability to think critically, to be resilient, to work in teams, and to do it all with a sense of ethics and global responsibility.
“Outside these walls today is a world that needs you,” Wang said. “Not just because of what you have learned to do in your chosen field, but because of who you are, and also because of the leadership qualities you built at WPI.”
Delivering the undergraduate Commencement address, Michelle Gass ’90, president and chief executive officer of Levi Strauss & Co., reflected on her journey from student to global business leader to inspire the Class of 2025. Gass said she’s often asked how a chemical engineering graduate from WPI became CEO of one of the most iconic apparel companies in the world. The answer, she told the graduates, lies in a handful of guiding principles she started refining in her years on the WPI campus.
“I’ve realized that to the extent I’ve been successful and able to engineer the kind of life I wanted for myself and my family, it’s largely because I learned how to approach problems and moments intentionally and productively, while keeping real people in mind at all times,” Gass said.
Gass and Mark Fuller, chair and treasurer of the George F. and Sybil H. Fuller Foundation, a significant supporter of WPI, received honorary degrees as part of the ceremony.
Student speaker Dhespina Zhidro, a biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering double major, reminded fellow graduates about the community they formed for themselves, shaped by a collective experience that included struggle, doubt, and, ultimately, achievement.
“WPI has given us more than an education,” Zhidro said. “It has given us a blueprint for how to live, how to lead, create meaningful change, and leave every place we enter better than we found it.”
About Worcester Polytechnic Institute
WPI is a top-tier STEM-focused research university and a recognized pioneer and global leader in project-based learning. Founded in 1865 on the principle that students learn most effectively by applying the theory learned in the classroom to the practice of solving real-world problems, WPI’s continued mission is to transform lives, turn knowledge into action to confront global challenges, and revolutionize STEM through distinctive and inclusive education, projects, and research. WPI’s project-based curriculum engages undergraduates in solving important scientific, technological, and societal problems throughout their education and at more than 50 project centers around the world. Today WPI offers more than 70 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs across 18 academic departments in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts. To help address ongoing challenges, improve lives, and help create a more sustainable world, WPI faculty and students pursue groundbreaking research in such areas as the life sciences, smart technologies, materials and manufacturing, and global initiatives.
Contact: Worcester Polytechnic Institute, media@wpi.edu
