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\u201cReal power comes from connection,\u201d Saujani told the graduates. \u201cWhen we commit to one another\u2019s success, we don\u2019t just survive, we soar. So go build a world where everyone rises. Build a world that looks like Harvey Mudd. Where gender isn\u2019t a battleground, but a force for building something better. Where the best solutions aren\u2019t the ones that dominate and divide, but the ones that unite. You\u2019ve got the tools. You\u2019ve got the values. I know you have the courage. And now, you\u2019ve got the moment. Let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas J. Watson Fellowship recipient and campus leader Moyo Oyedeji-Olaniyan \u201925 gave the student keynote address. She recounted beginning her first months of college at her home in Lagos, Nigeria, during the COVID-19 pandemic and how the support she received from faculty, staff and her classmates on-campus helped her feel a sense of belonging and community. \u201cLooking at you,\u201d she said, \u201cI see resilience. I see strength.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you remember just one thing I said today, let it be this: We have agency,\u201d said Oyedeji-Olaniyan. \u201cWe are in charge of our lives and our extraordinary minds. Looking at all of you, I see future leaders, innovators, voices of change, a handful of inevitable Shark Tank contestants. Give yourself permission. Start that company. Get that other degree. Serve and sacrifice for your needs. If Mudd has taught us anything, it\u2019s that engineers are still creatives, computer scientists are still leaders, and we are intersectional humans whose ideas deserve to be empowered.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs we spread out across the world\u2014moving to different states and countries, starting new jobs, meeting new people, and discovering who we are beyond our college selves\u2014let\u2019s hold on to community,\u201d Oyedeji-Olaniyan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kathy French \u201997, president of the HMC Alumni Association, welcomed the graduates into the alumni community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGraduates, welcome to being a Harvey Mudd College Alumni,\u201d said French. \u201cYou now join the ranks of the other 8,090 of us, and on behalf of all the other alumni, it is great to have you among our ranks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ceremony also included the presentation of the Henry T. Mudd Prize, which recognizes the outstanding service contributions of the College\u2019s faculty and staff. Chemistry professor Hal Van Ryswyk, holder of the John Stauffer Chair, was lauded for his nearly four decades of extraordinary service to the College \u201cthrough inspired teaching, impactful research and steadfast dedication.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Harriet B. Nembhard closed the ceremony with an address to the graduates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cToday we celebrate a proud moment\u2014one that honors your persistence, your brilliance and your choice to take on new challenges in the company of others,\u201d Nembhard said. \u201cIn a world so often divided by speed and certainty, you have practiced something much rarer: curiosity across difference. You leave here not just with valuable skills, but with an almost sacred responsibility to solve not only equations, but problems that matter. To be accountable not only for results, but for the ripples your work will send into the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMay you stay bold enough, brave enough to take on what seems impossible,\u201d said Nembhard. \u201cMay you remain generous enough to include others on your journey. And may you never forget that your brilliance is magnified when it is used in service to something greater than yourself. Congratulations, Class of 2025. The world needs what you know\u2014and even more, who you\u2019ve become.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to preliminary data from the senior survey, 61% of graduates expect to enter the workforce full-time in fall 2025, and 21% of graduates expect to be enrolled in graduate school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of those students who expect to be employed, 63% have accepted a position. The top employers are Microsoft, Nutshell Labs & Mc-Master-Carr, Bloomberg, Amazon, Webflow, SpaceX, Meta, AWS, Apple, Google and Higher Ground LLC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seniors who applied to graduate school for the fall plan to enroll in graduate programs at UCLA, UC San Diego, CU Boulder, Northwestern, Stanford, University of Chicago, UC Santa Barbara and USC, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n View video of the 2025 Commencement ceremony<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Moyo](\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/05\/Moyo-1.jpg\")
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