By the Numbers: Celebrating the Class of 2015

The tulips are blooming, the lanterns are being hung and seniors are walking through the Grécourt Gates: It’s time to start celebrating the Class of 2015.

Smith’s 137th commencement ceremony will be held Sunday, May 17, at 10 a.m. in the Quadrangle. A total of 735 degrees will be awarded: 666 undergraduates will receive A.B. or S.B. degrees, and 69 students will receive advanced degrees.

This year’s graduates exemplify longstanding college traditions of excellence, while also displaying achievements all their own, said Margaret Bruzelius, dean of the senior class and associate dean of the college. “This class is incredibly talented and incredibly varied,” Bruzelius said. “I don’t think they realize how much they have changed and grown since they first entered Smith.”

The Class of 2015 includes budding engineers, sociologists, scholars of C.S. Lewis, and Korean-American poetry, Bruzelius noted—citing just a few areas of expertise among its members.

Seniors hail from three-fourths of the 50 states and more than 35 countries—from Zimbabwe to Nepal.

Bruzelius said thinking about the Class of 2015 puts her in mind of lines from Matthew Arnold’s lyric poem, “Dover Beach”: “So various, so beautiful, so new.”

Commencement and Reunion celebrations begin on Thursday, May 14, with receptions, performances, parades and panel discussions for students, faculty, staff and alumnae.

Dr. Juliet V. Garcia—the first Hispanic woman to lead a U.S. college or university—will deliver Sunday’s commencement address and receive an honorary degree. Garcia, longtime president of the University of Texas at Brownsville and now inaugural executive director of the University of Texas Americas Institute, has been a leader in opening doors in higher education to more Hispanic and first-generation students.

For the first time, guests attending a Smith graduation will be able to hear the ceremony in Spanish or Mandarin—languages requested by members of this year’s graduating class—via a new translation service.

Celebrations will continue during second Reunion weekend, Thursday, May 21, to Sunday, May 24.

Photo from Commencement 2014 by Jim Gipe/Pivot Media