Sunka Simon

Hallo, alle miteinander!

Einen wunderschönen guten Morgen!

Or, in the vernacular of one of my son’s favorite YouTuber’s, “Top of the mornin’ to ya!”

Hi, my name is Sunka Simon, a faculty member in German and Film and Media Studies here at Swarthmore. I have had the sincere pleasure of teaching many of the assembled graduates and alumni over my 31 years at Swat. Like many of you, I am the proud parent of one of the graduating Swatties. And no, before you ask, he did not take any of my classes. When he accepted his spot here, I had to promise to treat the four years as if he were 100 miles away. Sometimes that worked, other times not so much. 

I am not perfect. But that’s why I can, like you, express my most sincere gratitude to the wonderful colleagues who have transformed him into the amazing socially responsible, creative, problem-solving, forward-looking adult he has become. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! 

Every year, faculty attend graduation — even though, after the umpteenth time, we are often tempted not to — I think you get it — because for our small academic community, these next hours mark a collective achievement. For a while, as the students’ paths and ours intersected, we all became richer for it, learned from and inspired one another, and challenged each other to dig deeper, come up with different ideas, and see things from each other’s perspectives. 

And faculty also participate in this rite of passage because like you, my fellow parental units out there, many of us are parents, guardians or caregivers and have already or hopefully will at some point be in the audience on a day like this.

And if not parents, all of us here on stage are former students who walked across another stage like this at another time, a moment we can no doubt recall vividly, and a moment that led us back here. Somehow we couldn’t get enough. 

This is a momentous occasion, a moment that will not come again and is therefore precious. Let the memories of this day be joyous ones that foreground what we came here to celebrate. Congratulations faculty, congratulations fellow parental units — we did it! — and congratulations Sander and the Class of 2026!