Bowdoin Celebrates the Conclusion of the Academic Year

Bowdoin Celebrates the Conclusion of the Academic Year

By Rebecca Goldfine

Bowdoin College's annual Baccalaureate ceremony brought together graduates, families, faculty, and friends Friday afternoon in Sidney J. Watson Arena to celebrate the Class of 2026 on the eve of Commencement.

President Safa Zaki presided over the ceremony, which traditionally marks the formal close of the academic year and offers graduating seniors an opportunity for reflection before Commencement exercises the following day.

The program featured remarks from Zaki, economist and Brookings Institution President Cecilia Elena Rouse-who will receive an honorary degree from Bowdoin on Saturday-and Kasei Lin '26. Lin won the privilege to speak today after submitting his remarks to a selection committee.

President Safa Zaki: A Baccalaureate Welcome

In her remarks, Zaki urged graduating seniors to embrace the ongoing work of becoming fully themselves in a rapidly changing world shaped by artificial intelligence.

Then she slipped back in time, well before the advent of large language models, to draw on the life of Nathaniel Hawthorne-a member of Bowdoin's Class of 1825. She used his biography to challenge the idea that achievement follows a predictable or immediately visible path.

"...We trust you will do something we have not yet done, could not have done; something we didn't even know needed doing, and could not have predicted. We know you are ready for this."

-President Safa Zaki

Zaki recounted Hawthorne's unremarkable undergraduate years-he was, she noted, "an average student at best"-and described how the future author spent years after graduation living at home and working dead-end jobs, struggling to establish himself. But those years that seemed empty of achievement, she said, were not wasted time but the experiences that shaped Hawthorne into a writer whose work continues to endure.

Using Hawthorne's life as a lens, Zaki reflected on what it means to build a human life at a moment when artificial intelligence is increasingly used to categorize, predict, and define people. While acknowledging the usefulness and growing sophistication of AI systems, she emphasized that such systems cannot fully capture the parts of a person still in formation.

"They cannot see the part of you that is not yet finished," she said, describing the friendships, losses, questions, and discoveries that gradually shape a life over time.

Zaki connected this idea to the purpose of a liberal arts education, describing Bowdoin as a place where students learn not simply to arrive at answers but to do "the slow work of...forming and re-forming the right questions." She pointed to moments familiar to many students: wrestling with difficult texts, engaging deeply with classmates whose perspectives differ from their own, helping friends through adversity, and reconsidering previously held assumptions.

"These efforts are the disciplines of the unfinished self," she said. "And they are precisely what your education has given to you and has demanded of you."

In closing, Zaki expressed optimism about the graduating class and the future they will help shape. She praised students for their curiosity, compassion, intellectual rigor, and the care they gave one another-"generously and quietly"-throughout their time at Bowdoin.

"Bowdoin is better because you were here," she told the Class of 2026. "And the future you are entering-uncertain, unpredicted, and yours to shape-is better because you are entering it."

Kasei Lin '26: "Bowdoin: A Community That Shows Up"

Lin told the audience he wanted to share the most important thing he's taken from his time at Bowdoin: its "deep, deep sense of community." Echoing Rouse's words to students about anticipating the unpredictable, Lin spoke about his and his family's shock when he was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor just three weeks into his first semester.

What happened next also took Lin by surprise, he said: the community showed up for him. He recalled how classmates, professors, staff, alumni, and medical professionals rallied around him during months of surgeries and treatment. Friends-who he had just met-brought snacks from the Hong Kong Market in Portland to his hospital room. Professors drove him daily to radiation therapy, and administrators helped arrange travel for family members. "It was this unexpected experience that revealed to me the strength of our community," he said.

"In the lowest points of my life, Bowdoin people, whether they knew me or not, came alongside me and lifted me up."

"More than ever, this world, even amid all the chaos, still deserves our love. What it needs is more of what we've found here at Bowdoin. "

-Kasei Lin '26

Even after he became well again-following two brain surgeries and radiation therapy-he continued to marvel at the strength of this community. "It is in moments of hardship, from the tragedy in Lewiston to the loss of our beloved classmates; it is also in everyday gestures, like a Bowdoin hello, to someone holding the door open behind them for you."

Drawing on his experiences working alumni reunions, Lin spoke about discovering how the bonds formed at Bowdoin continue across generations, creating what he called a "lasting cycle of care."

By the end of his time at Bowdoin, Lin said he had "lost nothing except a tumor." Instead, he had gained a profound appreciation for the people who carried him through adversity. He urged classmates to bring Bowdoin's spirit of empathy and responsibility into a chaotic and challenging world.

"Class of 2026, let's carry this Bowdoin spirit into the places we go next, fostering a world that cares, that makes people know they belong, and that brings genuine joy. Our sense of community doesn't stop here; it is just the beginning of our big and complex lives."

Cecilia Rouse: "Walking an Uncertain Path"

Rouse is an internationally recognized labor economist who previously served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Joe Biden and sat on the National Economic Council under President Bill Clinton and on President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. She encouraged graduates to approach an uncertain, and sometimes frightening, world with bravery, openness, and a commitment to the common good. In her address, she reflected on the unpredictability of life and career paths, urging students to ground themselves not in certainty, but in their values and willingness to grow, adapt, and change.

"There's a lot going on," she said at the start of her speech before running down a short list of international and domestic crises. "And while that may feel scary, it also means the world desperately needs you: your skills, your passions, your talents-the ones you've developed through your time here at Bowdoin and the qualities that make you who you are. Don't forget that: The world needs each and every one of you. Now. And urgently."

"...Pushing the boundaries of what feels comfortable can be the best way to grow and discover yourself. It might mean taking a job that isn't the obvious choice. Moving to a new city. Changing fields in the middle of your career. Or speaking up when it would have been easier to stay quiet. "

-Cecilia Rouse

She also warned the soon-to-be graduates that despite their best intentions, their paths will certainly play out unexpectedly.

Drawing on experiences from her own career in academia, public policy, and government service-and her early years after graduating from Princeton University-Rouse told graduates that while they could not control the many uncertainties ahead, they could rely on the "foundation of attitudes, skill sets, interests, and values" they had built over time.

Throughout her address, Rouse offered graduates three lessons she had learned over the course of her career: you cannot know the road not taken, growth happens outside your comfort zone, and time is life's most limited resource.

After sharing a parable about a farmer who accepts both his good and bad luck with equanimity, she said "What I love about this story is it reminds us that we cannot know how a decision, or an outcome, will impact the course of our lives."

In that spirit, she urged graduates to be bold, because "pushing the boundaries of what feels comfortable can be the best way to grow and discover yourself."

Her third lesson was to take the limited time we have in a day, in a lifetime, and use it well. "Spend it on things you genuinely value. For example, keeping in mind Bowdoin's motto of the common good, it's worth devoting some of your time to serving others. There are countless ways you can do just that. And reserve some of your time for yourself. You can't do your best and help others if you haven't taken care of yourself first."

Baccalaureate Music

The audience was led through renditions of "America the Beautiful" and "Raise Songs to Bowdoin" by vocalists from the Class of 2026 and pianist George Lopez, Robert Beckwith Artist-in-Residence.

In addition, senior a cappella members sang the John Lennon and Paul McCartney song, "Blackbird," arranged by Soren James and Rhys Moon of the Harvard Opportunes.

Published May 23, 2026