Good morning everyone! What a beautiful day for this celebration!  Welcome from the Board of Managers to our esteemed faculty and staff and proud families on this very special day.  And to the graduating Class of 2025, welcome, congratulations, and a hearty well done for reaching this important milestone in your lives.

I promise to keep this brief. With a number of other speakers, including four wonderful alumni honorees, all poised to share their wisdom today, my aim is to congratulate you and share with you a single, possibly useful (or perplexing) concept.

That concept is represented by a term told to me long ago by a professor of mine, not from Swarthmore by the way: Retrapolation. Retrapolation.   No need to Google it; you won’t find the term in the Oxford English Dictionary.  On the other hand, after only a few prompts, ChatGPT was certain that it should exist.

The "meaning" of retrapolation, if you will, is the act of jumping mentally into the future in order to look back on the paths that might get you there. This perspective from the future allows "hindsight" to illuminate your present decisions and provides confidence in pursuing future directions.

One period that you can retrospectively apply this concept to is the last five years. Look back to the spring of 2020 — a time when the world was gripped by uncertainty. COVID was running amok. Amid chaotic headlines and unpredictable days, you were wrestling with thoughts about college, the many choices of where to apply, and about where you might fit in a suddenly unfamiliar world.

Coming to Swarthmore was an early sign of your ability to make wise choices. Even as the pandemic resurged, you persevered. You found your way through a challenging academic sequence, broadened your minds through a rigorous curriculum and a hefty set of co-curricular and extra curricular activities, and formed friendships that would become anchors in turbulent times, both in the world and on our campus.  You embraced opportunities and faced possibilities that perhaps had once seemed out of reach.  Coming to Swarthmore, the future was blurry, and gaining clarity seemed a major challenge. Yet here you are today — resilient, dare I say wise yet again, and ready to shape your world.

So, going forward, let retrapolation be your compass and a source of comfort. Now, as you look ahead, the world appears no less uncertain than it did in 2020, and the challenges before you may seem even broader and deeper. Placing yourself in the future to look back – to retrapolate – won’t allow you to forecast the specific path your life will take.  It will allow you to imagine pathways forward, based on the foundations you have built through your life, particularly at Swarthmore, upon which you can continue to develop and grow.  The resilience, capabilities, friendships, and networks you have developed will surely allow you to adapt and, I hope, thrive in the coming years.

And as you journey into the future you are creating, remember this: Come back to Swarthmore. Amidst all the uncertainty and changes that will unfold, the College — its dedicated faculty and staff, inspiring buildings and grounds, peaceful setting, and the way the place energized you — will be here, awaiting your visits.

Congratulations to the graduating Class of 2025 and very best wishes for the years ahead.