Celebrating the Class of 2025

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Nearly 900 graduates crossed the stage at Radio City Music Hall on May 20 as Barnard marked its 133rd Commencement. In her address, President Laura Rosenbury reminded the Class of 2025 that while their time on campus may be ending, their connection to Barnard is lifelong.

“Our community doesn’t fade. It strengthens,” Rosenbury told the graduates and their families. “And in moments of change or uncertainty, we’ll be here no matter what. To push you. To raise you up. And to remind you that you belong in every room — especially those rooms that were not made for you. We are proud of what you’ve done here. Inspired by who you’ve become. And ready — truly ready — to see what you do next.”

Shabana Basij-Rasikh — a fearless advocate for girls’ education and the visionary co-founder and president of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), the first and only boarding school for Afghan girls — delivered an inspiring Commencement address. 

“Bold ideas challenge. Bold ideas frighten. And some bold ideas, like the one that motivated the creation of SOLA and the creation of Barnard College — some bold ideas have the power to benefit not just some of us, but all of us,” said Basij-Rasikh. “Educated girls become educated women, and educated women have agency. They can uplift economies, improve the health of their families, they can neutralize the threat of extremism. They can do all these things and benefit everyone on Earth.”

At this year’s ceremony, the College awarded its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction, to Basij-Rasikh and to Helen M. Berman ’64, pioneering scientist and founding force in structural biology and computational chemistry; Jeanine Tesori ’83, visionary composer and the most awarded woman composer in Broadway history; and Judith Weisenfeld ’86, acclaimed scholar of African American religious history whose work has reshaped the study of race and religion in American life.

Dean of the College Leslie Grinage presented senior class president Aurelia Tan with the Frank Gilbert Bryson Prize, an award voted on by classmates to the senior who contributed their time and service to Barnard over four years. Tan also received the Alicia L. Lawrence Memorial Award, honoring “a student who has made significant contributions to the College and who exemplifies Alicia’s values and honors her memory by leading with light and strength.”

Speaking on behalf of faculty, Provost Rebecca L. Walkowitz recalled the lessons she learned about “the challenge of sustained thinking” from reading Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway as a first-year in college: “Thinking needs community. There is nothing more valuable than the lifelong friendships you make in your teens and twenties and which support you throughout your life. … Graduates, I hope you will embrace the friendships, the uncertainty, and the curiosity you have developed here.” 

Cheryl Glicker Milstein ’82, P’14, who concluded her seven-year tenure as Board of Trustees chair in June, gave an emotional speech to the seniors, noting that she, too, was graduating after 26 years of service to the College. “Barnard doesn’t stand still,” she said. “It grows with you. And when you come back — because you will — Barnard will meet you wherever you are and say, ‘Let’s keep going.’”